At First Sight
by JoinTeamJacob
Summary: Twilight-Jacob's POV. "As I watched her dance with the man she thought she loved, I was sure about three things. One - she was head over heels in love with him. Two - I was head over heels in love with her. And three-this was just the beginning." COMPLETE
1. Homecoming

**Preface**

Perhaps things would have turned out differently if I had never told her about our legends. Legends that I once thought were just your run-of-the-mill scary bedtime stories. How little I knew then. Without those legends, she might have never found out what he truly was. And maybe, just maybe, the chain of events that led her to him would have been broken. And instead, she would have followed her life's natural path. A path that would have led her ... to me.

But I can't bring myself to regret going to the beach that day. That was the day that I saw her - that I really saw her - for the first time. And I was never the same again.

**Chapter 1: Homecoming**

We drove to Port Angeles to pick up Rachel for her first visit home since leaving for college. It was also the first time we had taken the Chevy out beyond the rez since I had rebuilt the engine and I couldn't help but grin smugly as the truck accelerated smoothly onto the 101.

"Slow down. You don't want to get caught for speeding," Billy cautioned gently.

"Please, like this truck could even make it to 60 miles an hour," I scoffed.

"True, but you also don't have a permit yet."

"Oh yeah, right."

I had forgotten that one teeny crucial detail. I was still a few weeks shy of my 15th birthday so I was technically breaking the law right now. But I had been driving my dad around the rez ever since my sisters left, so it was easy to forget that the rules were different out here.

"Then again, I don't see Charlie arresting you for driving to pick Rachel up for the holidays," Billy admitted as he smiled broadly. I couldn't help but grin back. We had both missed my sisters this past fall, more than we probably would have ever admitted.

And we weren't the only ones. Charlie, Chief of Police at Forks - the closest town to the rez, had a soft spot for my older sister Rachel. I think it was because she reminded him of his own daughter, Bella, who lived in Phoenix with her mother.

As the truck chugged along steadily, I tried not to grimace as old ladies driving beat-up vintage Cadillacs zoomed by. Despite the brisk weather, I rolled down the window and breathed in the crisp air. It was rare that I had the chance to get off the rez and the air was different out here; fresher somehow without the salty tang of the ocean breeze that I was so used to. Plus, it wasn't raining for once and that automatically qualified it as a good weather day in the Olympic Peninsula.

Port Angeles was a touristy seaside town about 60 miles east on the way to Seattle. It was also the closest bus stop to the rez, and the last stop on Rachel's seven-hour bus ride from Washington State. My other sister, Rebecca, Rachel's twin, wasn't coming home at all this Christmas. It would be the first time that we hadn't all celebrated together. Rebecca had gotten married fresh out of high school to Tommy, a Samoan surf instructor who worked at the La Push resort last year. They moved to Hawaii in October where Tommy and some buddies had opened up a surf shop. It took a little getting used to – the idea of Rebecca being married - but she had always been the mother hen of my two sisters, making sure I was fed, clothed, prepared for school, so imagining her with her own family wasn't all that much of a stretch. What was strange was realizing that she wouldn't be around to take of me - or Billy - anymore.

It was especially strange this time of year. Christmas was always tough, ever since my mother was killed in a car accident when I was five. She was coming home after doing some Christmas shopping - in Port Angeles in fact - when a drunk driver t-boned her car and killed her, and himself, on the spot. I was too young to remember the details, but I did remember how it felt – the strange feeling of emptiness that pervaded our house during a time of year that was supposed to be anything but empty.

The Port Angeles exit sign flashed up on the right, pulling me out of my thoughts. The drive had flown by despite the heavy holiday traffic. I turned to Billy to ask him for the time but he was staring out the window equally lost in his thoughts. I didn't need to ask to know that he was thinking about my mom too.

I pulled off the highway – if the one-lane 101 that snaked through the Olympic National Park could be called a highway - and merged into the heavy traffic onto First Street. Last minute Christmas shoppers I thought with a snort. Talk about cutting it down to the wire. It was 3 pm on Christmas Eve right now. As we made our way through town, I caught glimpses of evergreen branches, colorful bows, and twinkling lights wrapped around every possible lamppost and parking meter. People were mulling about, spilling out of cafes and stores with their arms full of colorful bags. It suddenly hit me how different this all felt. This cheerful hustle and bustle was a stark contrast to the stillness of the past few months at our house.

We pulled up to the bus station just as the Greyhound was pulling away. I spotted Rachel almost immediately in her bright blue parka. Despite being born and bred in the Pacific Northwest, my sister still couldn't deal with the cold.

"Hey kiddo! Great timing!" she waved as she jumped up in excitement. It was good to know that she had missed us as much as we had missed her.

I laughed as I pulled to the curb and hopped out. She pulled me into a tight hug and I suddenly became aware that I had grown taller in the past few months. While the twins were a respectable 5"7", Rachel dwarfed me now, with the top of her head just reaching my chin. Her hair was also much shorter than it was before and I could see faint purple shadows under her eyes.

Rachel looked me over with an appraising eye as well, but I must have passed her inspection because she let go of me with an affectionate squeeze to climb into the truck to hug Billy. That's when I noticed the two gynormous duffle bags sitting on the sidewalk. Clearly, some things never changed. How was it possible to need that much stuff for a two-week visit home? Especially when you already had a closet full of clothes back at the house. I would never understand women.

I stowed the bags in the bed of the truck, carefully covering them with plastic tarp in case it started to rain. As I moved back to the door, Rachel scooted into the middle seat next to Billy.

"You don't want to drive?" I was confused. My sister had always been a stickler for playing by the rules.

"Nah, I'm tired. Plus, I'm sure you're a better driver than I am at this point." She flashed a teasing smile at me. Wow. College really had mellowed her out.

"I was always a better driver," I retorted as I started the engine and pulled out of the station.

"Though I am surprised the truck was able to make it all the way here. It wasn't looking so good last summer," she commented as she stroked the faded leather seats that had begun to crack in places.

"Jake here rebuilt the engine himself this fall. Did a pretty darn good job of it too," Billy replied as he patted the dashboard with a loud thump. The pride in his eyes was unmistakable and I glanced away quickly with a deep blush.

"It still doesn't seem to go very fast." Rachel frowned skeptically as we merged back onto the highway.

"Don't blame that on me! I did the best I could with what I had. This thing is like 40 years old. Now if I could just work on something with a little more potential ..." I glanced hopefully at Billy who was looking straight ahead with a small smile on his lips.

"We'll see. We'll see." Billy turned to Rachel. His eyes were soft, but his cheeks were almost cracking from the lovingly goofy grin on his face. "So Rach, how's school going?"

"School is great! Been pretty busy with all the extra classes, but it'll be worth it when I finish early."

"You don't have to do that, Rach. You should enjoy your time at college. We'll find a way to ..." He frowned as he took in the shadows and faint lines around her eyes.

"Dad, this is what I want. Really - let's not go through this again!" Rachel urged softly with a pleading smile.

I kept my eyes on the road. I had heard this conversation a million times already. Rachel had won a large scholarship from the tribe, but it only covered two years of tuition. It was designed for someone getting an associate's degree, but my sister was determined to use it to finish a bachelor's degree in half the time. She knew we had no money to help pay and she refused to take on loans, which meant that she took an insane number of classes and worked crazy hours at a café to make ends meet. It also explained why she hadn't been home since she left for school.

"Really dad, I'm fine. I swear. It hasn't been that hard and I have been enjoying myself, so don't worry." Rachel squeezed his hand gently as she skillfully changed the topic. "So enough about me, how are you guys? What's the latest scoop on the rez?"

Billy paused, clearly not wanting to drop the subject but he relented at the determined look on her face. His shoulders eased as he started running through the local gossip mill. It always amazed me how much stuff went on given the tiny size of the reservation.

I started to zone out as Billy updated her on the past few months, when suddenly, a red Mercedes convertible – driven by a gorgeous blonde - came out of nowhere and sharply cut me off before zooming off into the distance. I looked up in the rear mirror, half expecting to see the flashing lights of a cop car in pursuit. That was the only reason I could think of for anyone to have the guts to drive that fast. Talk about exceeding the speed limit. She was probably going 120 miles an hour.

But there was no cop in sight. Too bad my friend Quil wasn't with me – she was just his type – a showy blonde in a hot car. But she probably was a jerk . Anyone with a nice ride generally was. At least that was my experience with the tourists who got their cars fixed at the La Push garage. And that red Mercedes was one hell of a sweet car.

"So we're off to the Clearwater's tomorrow night, right?" Rachel asked as Billy finished telling her about Sue Clearwater's recent attempt to put her husband, and Billy, on a low-fat low-cholesterol diet.

"It wouldn't be Christmas without it," I responded cheerfully. We had spent every Christmas at the Clearwater's house since my mother died. Harry was one of my dad's best friends and Sue was like a surrogate mother to us all.

"So, just the usual crowd? Us, Sam ..."

"Not Sam," Billy corrected abruptly. I looked up at him with a grin. I guess he hadn't told her yet. This was going to be good.

"Not Sam?" Rachel exclaimed. "What happened? Is he out of town or something?"

Billy caught my eye and raised his eyebrow in a way that I read to mean, "Aren't you going to help me out here, kid?" But I shrugged. He knew as much as I did about what happened. Probably more, in fact, since I was sure that Sue had given him an earful about Sam's 'disgraceful behavior.' Her words. Not mine.

"No no, he's at La Push. It's just that he and Leah …" Billy's voice faltered.

"They broke up?" Rachel interrupted her eyes wide in shock. "No way! You guys have been holding out on me! What gives?"

"They only broke up a few weeks ago," Billy replied as he cleared his throat. "And it wasn't that dramatic really."

I snorted. That was quite an understatement. Billy frowned sharply at me. Rachel looked back and forth at us eagerly, sensing the juiciness of the gossip.

"This has got to be the biggest news on the rez. He and Leah have been joined at the hip for years! What happened?"

"Well they kind of grew apart-" Billy tried again without success

"-but Sam turned down college to stay her with her!" Rachel interrupted trying to cut to the chase.

I was careful not to let Billy see my smile. Rachel was relentless when it came to gossip, so he might as well just get over it because she would get it out of him sooner or later.

"Well..." Billy balked again as he muttered something to himself. It was strange to see him fumbling for a response. My dad was pretty much a straight-shooter, but he was clearly uncomfortable speaking poorly of Sam, which of course rankled me. Saint Sam, who could do no wrong in the eyes of my dad and the tribe's elders. Wouldn't want to say anything bad about him even if it were true.

The elders had pitched a fit when Rebecca turned down a college scholarship to marry Tommy, but not a word was said when Sam did the same thing. It wouldn't be quite so annoying if they didn't hold him up constantly as some kind of role model for us. It was even worse that Sam clearly relished the role. As far as I could tell, he hadn't exactly done much to merit being a role model. Deciding to give up college and the chance to make something of himself didn't seem all that admirable to me. But what did I know.

I jumped in, "He met someone else." I figured that we might as well cut to the chase before Rachel had an aneurysm from trying to guess the answer.

"No freaking way!" Her eyes were glinting with devilish merriment. "Sam?!?! Always-do-the-right-thing and don't-shame-the-tribe Sam?!"

I chuckled. Clearly, Rachel wasn't all that fond of Sam either.

"Well now, we don't know the whole story. We shouldn't judge him so harshly," Billy chided us both gently.

"What more do we need to know? He dated Leah for ages and then dumped her cold for someone else. Seems pretty black and white to me," I muttered under my breath.

Ignoring me, Billy continued. "He and Leah had some issues after that incident last summer-"

"-Yes, yes, I remember you telling me. He disappeared for like two weeks or something, without a word to anyone, right? Did he ever explain why?" Rachel asked curiously.

"Not exactly, but he had his reasons."

I snorted loudly – I couldn't stop it.

"Jacob, you don't know the whole story!" Billy admonished – more harshly - this time.

"I guess so, but I do know that if I took off for two weeks without telling anyone, I'd need more than just a good reason or else you'd skin me alive!"

"You don't know that. If it was the same reason that Sam had, I might understand."

Billy looked at me quietly with a completely unreadable expression on his face. I turned my eyes back to the road confused. I had no idea what he was talking about and yet, I could sense that he was being entirely serious.

"Okay, so Sam came back with a good excuse. And then what? Weren't he and Leah working things out?" Rachel pressed on, not allowing herself to be distracted from getting the full scoop.

"Yes, they were and they were making good progress. You know how – ahem - feisty Leah can be," Billy continued with a wry smile.

I rolled my eyes - discreetly - as I took the exit for Forks/La Push. Describing Leah as feisty was another contender for understatement of the year.

"But things were going well…" Billy hesitated slightly so I decided to steal the punch line.

" … until he met Emily Young and fell head over heels in love with her at first sight and dumped Leah without a second thought." We were already in Forks so I figured that I'd speed up the conversation.

"Wait! Wait! Emily Young? As in Sue's niece? Leah's cousin and best friend? That Emily?!" Rachel's expression was priceless.

"The very one. So you can see why Sam is persona non grata at the Clearwater home right now." I grinned. "Not much of a loss in my opinion."

"Wow, I can't believe it," Rachel sighed with a half smile. "It just seems way too soap-opera-ish. It's so weird though - Sam was so into Leah – it was sickening."

"You should see him now – it's really puke-inducing," I offered helpfully. He really was. The way he looked at Emily was like the way he looked at Leah but magnified by a thousand. And he didn't seem to mind anyone knowing it either. It was really enough to make you want to swear off women.

"Well I guess he wasn't the guy everyone thought he was," Rachel mused thoughtfully.

"That's what I've been saying all along!" I exclaimed, happy that she was on my side.

"Jacob, you don't understand." Billy sighed as he looked out his window. We had pulled into downtown Forks and were waiting at a red light – one of the two traffic lights in the entire town. "It has hurt him more than you know."

"Yeah, I know. I'm sure he had a good reason for this one too," I shrugged unapologetically. "Though I can't see what can possibly excuse going from being practically engaged to falling in love with someone else."

I knew I had him there. Loyalty was a pretty big thing with the Quileutes, and with Billy in particular.

"How is Leah taking it?" Rachel asked innocently.

"As well as you might imagine," I joked. I didn't mean to be a jerk. It was just that Leah was notoriously difficult. Translation, she could be a total pain in the ass.

"She'll get over it. This is all for the better. You'll see," Billy insisted vehemently in a voice that silenced the two of us. Rachel looked at me, her dark eyes full of questions, but I shook my head. I didn't understand why Billy was defending Sam so strongly – given the circumstances - any more than she did.

Changing tactics, Rachel continued, "I have to admit I'm a little surprised about Emily though. She never seemed like the boyfriend-stealing type."

"I don't think she really is either," I admitted honestly. "Emily hasn't taken so kindly to Sam's change of heart. Or at least that's what I heard."

"Wait, but you guys said that Sam dumped Leah for her," Rachel protested impatiently.

"Well not technically," I pointed out. "Sam dumped Leah because he fell in love with Emily – some love at first sight crap - but they're not actually together yet. Emily and Leah were pretty close, if you remember, so I don't know that she's agreed to date him or anything."

"Hmm… very interesting." I recognized the scheming expression on my older sister's face. She was clearly figuring out who she was going to visit as soon as we got home to get the full scoop. I grinned, knowing that I could count on her to fill in the gaps of the story for me before she left. Not that I was interested generally in rez gossip, but I couldn't resist getting some dirt on Saint Sam.

Billy interrupted us with a loud cough. "We better pull into the Thriftway to stock up on some food. Unless you want to eat beans and rice for dinner?"

He wasn't exaggerating. Neither of us were good cooks, so beans and rice had been the go-to dinner many a night this past fall.

"It's strange that Rebecca won't be here," Rachel said suddenly with a wistful smile.

That was for sure. Rebecca's cooking skills were sorely missed, particularly around this time of year.

"We're just glad to have you with us." Billy took Rachel's hand and squeezed it tenderly. "Plus Jake and I have been making do pretty well. He's even learned to cook."

"By cook, you mean pop something into a microwave?" Rachel asked skeptically.

"You know me too well," I acknowledged with a mock sigh.

"Well I can do better than that. Let's stock up on groceries and I'll make a freezer's worth of food before I leave."

Now it was my turn to look at her skeptically. Rachel's cooking skills left much to be desired. Though to be fair, Rebecca never gave her the chance to do much in the kitchen, but the few times Rachel had attempted to cook hadn't been all that successful.

"What?!" Rachel retorted as she caught the look on my face. "I picked up a few things at the cafe where I've been working. You'll be amazed."

She reached out and ruffled my hair as we pulled into the Thriftway. A police cruiser pulled into the spot next to us just as Rachel and I were helping Billy into the wheelchair.

"Charlie!" Rachel exclaimed as she skipped over to greet him with a big bear hug,

"Look who's back from the big city!" Charlie, who was tall and thin with dark brown hair and eyes, was grinning from ear-to-ear. "The guys here have barely survived without you. I can hardly bear to visit anymore."

Charlie patted me on the shoulder as he walked around the truck to playfully punch Billy's arm in greeting.

"That's right. Yet, who keeps coming over to watch the Seahawks game every Sunday?" Billy laughed, trying to retaliate by ramming him in the legs with the chair. It was their standard way of saying hi.

"Well that may be changing soon," Charlie beamed, looking every bit like the proverbial kid in a candy store. "I just bought myself a shiny new 32" Samsung flat screen."

Sw-eet! Not that I was a huge Seahawks fan by any means, but our TV had seen better days. Plus it was nice to have an excuse to get off the rez on Sundays. Maybe I could even get a gig in Forks to make some extra bucks when I dropped Billy off for the game. Part-time jobs were not easy to come by in La Push, especially during the winter when the tourists were away.

Billy whistled. "Now that is something! Harry's been bugging Sue for one for years. I can't wait until you tell him." The men hi-fived each other. They both respected Sue tremendously, mostly because they were both somewhat scared of her. There was no doubt as to who wore the britches in the Clearwater house so to speak.

"I'll tell him tomorrow night. You guys are going, right?" Charlie asked as he took the wheelchair from me.

"You betcha. Rachel is even planning to wow us with her culinary skills," Billy responded winking at my sister as we entered the store.

"That so?! I better eat before I show up then!" Charlie teased as the the two of them dissolved into raucous laughter as they headed over to the beer aisle

Rachel gave them both a mock glare or resentment before she disappeared in search of ingredients. I perused the bulletin boards for promising help wanted ads when I heard the crash behind me. A cashier had knocked over a small rack of merchandise, causing the colorful assortment of candy bars to spill all over the floor. The reason for her accident was obvious. A tall pale man, who could have easily been Tom Cruise's younger, blonder, better-looking brother, was standing at the registrar and the cashier – a slightly plump middle-aged woman – was blushing furiously as she fumbled to clean up.

I recognized him immediately as Dr. Cullen, the doctor at Forks Hospital and the subject of a spectacularly unflattering Quileute legend. I had only seen him once before when Billy had grudgingly pointed him out to me. The doctor smoothly gathered up a bunch of loose candy with one hand and fixed the rack with the other, smiling gently at the woman the entire time, which only made her cheeks blush a more violent shade of red.

I watched curiously as he bagged his groceries, paid, and left. I couldn't believe he was a doctor. He didn't look a day over thirty. He got into a black Mercedes S55 AMG with tinted windows, the nicest car by far in the entire parking lot, and pulled off. It must be nice being a doctor, I mused. Maybe I should start paying more attention in biology class.

Rachel was surprisingly quick with the shopping and she was done by the time Charlie and Billy emerged from the liquor aisle with a few packs of Vitamin R. We said our goodbyes to Charlie as we loaded up the truck with all sorts of fruits, vegetables, and spices that hadn't been seen inside our house in months. I eyed a tub of ricotta cheese and a package of lasagna noodles eagerly. Rachel had remembered that lasagna was my favorite. Even if Billy or I actually knew how to make it, we tended to forget to buy anything except the bare bone essentials when we grocery-shopped. Meat. Vegetables. Starch. But fancy stuff like cheese or spices tended to fall off our radar. No wonder food had tasted so bland recently. I made a mental note to ask Rachel to stock up on some simple sauces and spices for Billy to use.

As I pulled off 101 onto La Push Road, the reservation's "Welcome" sign flashed by on the right and Rachel let out a contented sigh.

"I've missed La Push. I didn't think I would, but I have," she marveled.

Last summer, Rachel had been desperate to get out of here. She couldn't wait to finally escape small town life. Not that I could blame her. I felt the same way most of the time. But the reservation was gorgeous right now, with the lush moss-draped trees almost enclosing in on the road and a million shades of green extending away as far as the eye could see. I had spent my life running around these forests and I could tell by sight the name of almost everything I saw. It was at these moments that I could almost understand why "I-had-a-good-reason" Sam had stayed behind at La Push. There was something about this place that made it hard to leave.

The main rez road was a ten mile stretch that meandered its way through the dense woods alongside the Quillayute River. Even though I knew that it was coming, the first glimpse of the ocean was always a shock to the senses. The road veered suddenly to the right and the endless green broke to reveal the glittering – and often stormy – waves of the Pacific Ocean.

First Beach – not to be confused with Second or Third Beach – was the reservation's main attraction for tourists. A perfect crescent of silky smooth sand that cradled the pummeling ocean waves gently, surrounded on three sides by the dense forest that lent an otherworldly feel to the place. I may not have been many places, but I knew that watching the sunset here, with the mist slipping out of the forest and slowly sweeping across the beach, had to be one of the most beautiful sights in the world.

Right by the beach was the town that thrived off the tourists who visited during the summers. There was the resort built in the 60s that was beginning to show its age, as well as the main dock where fishing and crabbing boats pulled in every morning. And then there were the usual collection of beach town shops – a small surf shop that offered lessons and wet suits for those crazy enough to brave frigid water, a handful of eating joints serving up the summer trinity of burgers, seafood, and ice cream, and a souvenir shop selling useless overpriced trinkets that tourists bought by the dozens.

Billy worked at the Quileute tribal heritage center, which also doubled as the tribe's administrative office. He used to co-own the town's gas station and garage with my friend Quil's dad, but after the accident, he took over the tribal affairs full time. The center was an easy trip from our house down the road, a dark red building with some faded posters and even more dusty artifacts. Very few people stopped by the museum since tourists came mostly for the beach. But those who did often ended up staying for hours, enthralled by Billy's story-telling. I was still enthralled, even though I had heard his stories a thousand times in my childhood.

We pulled up to our little faded red house – set far back from the road along the edge of the forest - just as it started to drizzle again. Rachel helped Billy out and pushed him into the house while I started unloading the truck.

"Did you get someone to repair the wheelchair ramp? It's not as wobbly as it used to be," I heard Rachel ask.

"Your brother rebuilt it out of some scrap wood. He's a good kid. You should have seen ..."

Billy's voice trailed off as they entered the house. I felt myself flush. Not wanting to follow them as they were discussing me, I unloaded the groceries and luggage onto the covered porch and then jogged down the driveway to grab the mail. Just some junk mail and our Christmas package from Rebecca. I could almost smell the cookies that I knew were in there. I fervently hoped that she had remembered to include some gingerbread too.

When I got back to the house, Rachel was unpacking in her room. Well technically, it was my room now. I had started using it after the girls left since it was twice the size of my old one. But it was still tiny. Our whole house was tiny. The front door opened directly into the main living space - a small yellow kitchen to the left with faded white cabinets. A table and some chairs were pushed up against the window overlooking the porch. To the right was the tiny living room, made to feel even smaller by the floor-to-ceiling bookshelves that covered nearly every available wall. Billy was a history buff and our bookshelves reflected that. One faded, squishy, extraordinarily comfortable blue sofa lined the wall. It was originally part of a set, but we had moved the other sofa into my old room to make more room for Billy's wheelchair.

Our rooms were at the back of the house. All three used to be same size, but after the accident, half of my old bedroom was used to expand the bathroom to make it easier for Billy to use. Since the girls left, we had gotten rid of my old furniture and used the room as a storage space – so there was barely room for the small air mattress that was now nestled in among the boxes and bookcases. Despite knowing that I would have to sleep on that saggy thing, I was happy – and relieved - to have Rachel home. Things finally felt right again.


	2. Christmas

**Chapter 2: Christmas**

The Clearwater's house was a little ways down the road, but we could almost see it from our house with all of the colorful Christmas lights strung around the porch and walkway. I sniffed appreciatively as we approached the house. Although Rachel had made good on her cooking claim, there was just something about Sue's food. Maybe it was just that I had such fond memories of all of our holidays spent at her house. She had been a surrogate mother for all of us, particularly for the girls - taking them shopping for prom dresses, giving them the birds and the bees talk, and the like. I knew how grateful Billy was for all of that.

The Clearwater's home was almost identical to ours in design, but it reflected a homey-ness that ours lacked completely. The living room was painted a soft calming blue, but was crammed full of knick-knacks, pictures, and evidence of Sue's passion for all types of crafts. A large sparkling Christmas tree, weighted down by jewel-toned baubles, took over half the room but instead of making it feel crowded, it warmed up the room and made it feel inviting. We greeted Sue – who gave us Rachel an ecstatic hug and kiss – before waving me and Billy away from the kitchen.

I helped Billy settle in by the fireplace where Harry was stoking the flames. Charlie was the only one missing from this all too familiar scene. Billy, Harry, and Charlie - the three amigos, the three musketeers, the three stooges - whatever you wanted to call them. They had been friends for over 20 years and rarely did a week go by when they didn't see each other.

During baseball season, they got together even more often, usually at our house or here at the Clearwater's which had the clear advantage of Sue's cooking. But our house had the clear advantage of having no women around to nag or scoff. There were no women at Charlie's house either, but he lived in Forks - 15 miles out - which was not all that convenient for Billy. Though he might be willing to make an effort now that there was a new flat screen involved.

A loud clatter came from the kitchen and the three of us looked up quickly in alarm.

"Seth! Get out!" Leah's voice was easily recognizable over the commotion.

Seth Clearwater ambled out of the kitchen with a sheepish smile. He was a nice kid, a year younger than me. We had never hung out much, but that didn't stop Seth from looking up to me in a strange big brother way. I suspected it was just admiration for my ability to put up with two overbearing sisters, while he could barely put up with just his one.

"You ruin the ham, buddy?" Harry asked with a teasing grin.

"Nah, just knocked over some pans trying to reach the cookies." Seth smiled as he settled into the sofa next to me where I was aimlessly flipping through the channels.

"Anything good?" he asked.

"Nothing but holiday specials," I said as I landed on a channel where an overly made-up woman wearing a set of felt reindeer antlers was hawking some beauty product. We looked at each other quickly and cracked up. It was easy to hang out with Seth. We settled into a comfortable silence, half-listening to our fathers chatting away and half-watching some terrible action film on TV. It was pretty much what we did every year.

"Dinner's ready!" Sue announced coming into the living room holding a gigantic ham. I jumped up to take the dish from her and put it on the table that groaned from the weight of the food on it.

Sue looked around and then frowned. "Where's Charlie? It's not like him to be late."

"We ran into him yesterday and he said he was coming," Billy replied. "Maybe something happened on the job to keep him."

"On Christmas Day!? What is the world coming to when folks can't even behave themselves today of all days," Sue muttered loudly.

Just then, as if we had summoned him with our thoughts, Charlie's police cruiser came around the corner and pulled into the driveway. He jumped out of the car and there was a jaunt in his step as he hurried up the walkway.

"Sorry, I'm late!" He exclaimed as soon as Sue opened the door.

"As long as you made it safely," Sue smiled, kissing him softly on the cheek. Then she stepped back to look at him critically. "Well you look like you just got the best Christmas present of your life. What's going on?"

It was true. Charlie was almost glowing. Something had clearly happened since we saw him yesterday. But I couldn't imagine what. As I far as I knew, things just weren't all that exciting in Forks.

"Something happen in town to hold you up?" Harry asked concerned as he relieved him of the cases of Vitamin R.

"No, no. All quiet there. I'm late because I got a phone call from Isabella."

I looked up, trying not to be too obvious in my interest. It was stupid really. Just a childhood crush that I had long outgrown, but I was always curious to hear about her. Bella used to spend a few weeks each summer here in Forks. Charlie never knew what to do with her, so he often brought her over to our house to play with the girls.

She spent one afternoon making mud pies with me while my sisters were away at a birthday party and she had shared her ice cream cone with me afterwards. It was love for a seven-year old. Not that she knew or even remembered who I was. Even at a young age, I had gotten the impression that she hadn't liked her time in Forks, but had put on a brave face so as to not hurt Charlie. After a while, she stopped coming and she and Charlie vacationed in California instead.

"How's she doing? Bet she ribbed you about the crappy weather here?" Billy said with a wide grin. "Not that I can blame her. It's probably 70 degrees in Phoenix right now."

"Well she'll find out about the weather here soon enough." Charlie was smiling so widely that his cheeks were turning red from the strain. "She called to tell me that she's moving to Forks in January!"

Ah. That explained his excitement. Charlie doted on his only daughter and this was definitely the best Christmas gift he could ever have received.

But I didn't know how to explain my excitement at the news. My heart was pounding heavily over the roar in my head, and I felt my skin grow warm. It was really stupid for me to get excited about this. Even though Billy and Charlie were friends, the chances that she would remember me were slim. And even if she did, there wasn't anything to remember. Like I said, it was stupid.

"That's great news! It trumps getting the flat screen for sure," Billy reached up to high-five Charlie.

"Flat screen? What flat screen?" Harry asked momentarily distracted.

Sue ignored him as she reached over to affectionately pat Charlie's shoulder. "I'm glad. I hope she'll take good care of you. You've been looking tired this fall - all of that diner food is not good for you."

"I don't know if Bella can cook much. Well she definitely can't if she takes after Renee or me. But it'll be good to have her here regardless," Charlie said with a satisfied smile.

"So tell us the details. When is she getting here? Why is she leaving Renee? No problems, I hope?"

I was intensely grateful to Billy at that moment, for asking the questions that I wanted to know but couldn't bring myself to ask.

"She's coming in mid-January. I guess Renee's husband, Phil, just got signed by a baseball team and will be going on the road for the spring. Bella figured she'd come live here to let Renee travel with him."

"Any team we've heard of?" Harry asked, his eyes glinting at the possibilities. He was, arguably, the most baseball-crazy of the three.

"No, just some minor league. Bella didn't know the name. We'll see how it turns out." Charlie was too good of a guy to begrudge Renee's happiness, but I had always gotten the sense that he had never really gotten over his ex-wife.

"What's going on?" Rachel asked as she and Leah came into the room carrying more food. "I thought we were eating?"

"We are," Charlie apologized. "We just got caught up chatting. Bella's coming to live with me."

"For how long?" Rachel asked, her eyes glowing with affection in response to his obvious excitement. We all knew how much this meant to Charlie.

"Don't really know. Until she gets tired of me, the weather, or hanging out with you folks I guess." Charlie laughed as he slung his arm around her shoulder and led the way into the dining room.

Charlie's good mood was infectious and everyone - well everyone except Leah - was in high spirits as we dug into the feast. The food was phenomenal. Made a thousand times tastier by the fact that I hadn't eaten this way since Rebecca left.

As the conversation flowed, I became slightly irritated that no one asked any more questions about Bella. Which, of course, just made me irritated for being irritated in the first place. Why did it even matter? It was stupid getting excited about this. I knew that. But it was also a reflection of having lived all of my life on a small reservation where I had known every girl around my age since we were in diapers. And our parents knew each other, and our grandparents knew each other, and our ancestors knew each other - it made it kind of hard to see them as anything other than a sibling. Not that everyone felt the same way as I did I thought, shooting a surreptitious glance at Leah across the table.

Leah was really beautiful, with her glossy hair and pretty features. I may even have had a mini-crush on her when I was in middle school, but it was hard to think of her as beautiful now. She hadn't taken the break-up well. She was sullen and rarely spoke. And when she did speak, she usually snapped or snarled at us, making us wish that we had never asked her anything in the first place. Sue was at her wit's end, not knowing how to help. Harry was more philosophical, like Billy, feeling that the breakup was for the better. I had to admit that I was on Sue's side. Harry seemed to be taking his daughter's anguish a bit too lightly in my opinion.

Slowly, people started lean back in their chairs as they stuffed themselves to their limit. I got up to help clean up the plates and bring out dessert – or desserts really – as there was no shortage of pies, cookies, and cakes.

"So Jacob, before I forget, I wanted to ask you about your truck," Charlie said as he sat down next to me with a healthy sampling of every dessert offering on his plate.

"Okay?" I was confused. Charlie wasn't much of a car guy.

"Well, I know you spent a lot of time rebuilding it last fall. How is it running?"

"Pretty good. You've got to double-pump the clutch when you shift, but otherwise it's great. We took it all the way to Port Angeles and back yesterday with no problems. I almost made it to the speed limit too..." I trailed off, remembering that I wasn't technically legal to drive yet. But Charlie didn't seem to notice.

"Well that's great because I was wondering if you guys would be interested in selling it to me?"

"Planning to go undercover or something?" Billy quipped with a barking laugh. Harry almost choked on a cookie as he joined in the laughter.

"No, it's for Bella. She'll need a car to get around and I want something safe for her. I thought the truck would fit the bill."

"Yeah, that thing is practically indestructible," I joked. It actually wasn't a bad idea.

"They don't make them like that anymore," Billy agreed. Seeming to read my mind, he continued, "Works for us. Jake's been itching to work on something else and I've got something in mind for him." I looked up eagerly. "Quil Sr. has a nice Volkswagen Rabbit that they're looking to sell. It'll take a lot of work, but I thought you might like it as a Christmas gift."

"No way! That would be awesome!" I had seen it at the garage last week and it was in pretty decent shape – at least the chassis was – I hadn't seen under the hood.

"But you guys already gave me some clothes and stuff for Christmas…" My voice trailed off, knowing that we didn't exactly have a lot of money right now.

"We'll count it as your Christmas and birthday gift rolled into one, how about that?" Billy responded with a smile that made me suspect that it was already a done deal.

"Awesome!" This really was awesome. Finally a chance to build a decent car that I wouldn't be embarrassed to drive around once I was legal.

"I guess this means you can take the Chevy," Billy joked to Charlie.

"But won't that leave you guys without a car until Jake gets the Rabbit fixed?" Charlie pointed out.

"They can borrow ours anytime they need it," Harry chimed in. "We're getting another truck for the store so we won't be needing it as much anyway."

"Well that settles it then! We'll drive the Chevy down the next time we come over to watch a playoff game on your flat screen and Harry can give us a ride back," Billy concluded as he and Charlie shook hands. And with that, the men settled into watching the game.

I was too excited to concentrate, my mind whirling with plans for the Rabbit. The chassis and interior had seemed decent, but the engine probably had to be gutted and entirely redone. I would have to start saving for parts immediately, but it would be manageable as long as some crucial parts of the engine could be salvaged.

I grinned as I imagined myself cruising down La Push Road, actually surpassing the speed limit for once. Having a car meant freedom when you lived on a rez. This really was turning out to be the best Christmas ever – for me and for Charlie. I suddenly had an image of Bella riding next to me as we drove through Forks.

I grimaced as I forced myself to wipe that thought out of my head. I had to stop thinking about that. It really was ridiculous. It was stupid to think that anything was going to happen. And it was even more stupid to wish for things that were never going to happen. Exciting things just didn't happen in La Push. And they definitely didn't happen to me.


	3. Beach

_____Note: I am trying to stay as faithful to the books as I can, so I've literally taken Stephenie Meyer's dialogue between Bella and Jacob in Twilight and rewritten it from Jacob's perspective._

**Chapter 3. Beach**

The rest of the holidays passed quickly. The house was temporarily overrun with Rachel's friends and for a time, it felt like the clock had been turned back. But soon enough, she went back to school and my life returned to its normal routine. School during the days, homework at nights, and hanging out with Embry and Quil or working on the Rabbit on the weekends.

I had picked up a few of the parts that I needed at the dump. But the engine turned out to be entirely unsalvageable so I needed to save some serious cash to get a replacement. This put a big dent in my hopes to get the car done this summer. It also made my birthday more exciting since I was now 15 and legally able to work. I was hoping to land a steady gig once the tourists starting trickling back.

We hadn't seen much of Charlie either, which was quite a change. Bella had arrived in mid-January and Charlie spent most of his weekends at home with her. I think he was scared to leave her alone for fear that she'd find Forks too boring. We knew he was serious when he missed Harry's Superbowl party for the first time in 20 years.

He and Billy had also gotten into some silly argument over the phone. I gathered that it had something to do with Charlie finding out that the Quileutes weren't going to the hospital in Forks anymore because of Dr. Cullen. Charlie didn't understand the tribe's dislike of Dr. Cullen and he told Billy that he was being unfair and prejudicial. I couldn't have agreed more, but I figured it was smarter for me to keep my mouth shut.

Pretty soon, winter started to blur into spring. It was barely perceptible to the untrained eye. It certainly didn't stop raining or get much warmer, but the rain changed and became softer. Less bracing and more misty. When the first weekend in March rolled around, it brought with it the first glimmers of sun in weeks.

Quil and I were at the souvenir shop where Embry's mom worked. Embry helped out there most weekends, stocking shelves, and cleaning up. His mother wasn't actually Quileute. She was a Makah from the reservation to the north, but she had moved down to La Push right after Embry was born. She had worked at this store for as long as I could remember and the three of us had spent much of our childhood here trying to sneak candy bars when she wasn't looking.

Embry was tall and thin, just like his mother. Though he, Quil, and I were all close, I was probably just a little closer to Embry. He also knew what it was like to grow up without a parent. Though in his case, he had never actually met his father.

We had just finished restocking the fridge with soda, so I started flattening out boxes as Quil snagged a can and flipped open the top.

"You better be paying for that!" Embry said, coming in from the back room with some more boxes to unload.

"Come on man! I just helped you unpack here. Don't I get something?" Quil complained as he adjusted the glasses that had slipped down his nose.

"My gratitude. And a 25% employee's discount. Pay up."

Grumbling, Quil dug into his pocket for change and made a face at me. I shrugged. I knew that if Embry didn't lay down the law, Quil would eat away all the profits at the store.

It wasn't that Quil was rude, he was just … Quil. He had the most normal family life out of the three of us. His dad ran the garage in town and his mother helped out during the summers when it got busy. His grandfather lived with them too. Old Quil was the oldest elder in the tribe. His hair was completely white and he seemed to shrink daily with age, but none of us were fooled. He was as tough and as sharp of an old man as you would ever meet. Billy may have been the brains and face of the tribe, but old Quil – not to be confused with Quil Sr. and Quil Jr. - was the heart.

Quil also had three younger sisters, who were the bane of his existence, precisely because they all adored him so much. Spending too much time with them ruined his "street cred" he claimed. Whatever that meant.

Just as I started fumbling in my pocket for change for a soda, the door opened and in came Sam. His hair was buzzed short, a novelty among the Quileute boys who, like me, generally let their hair grow long. It was mostly an issue of practicality because this way you didn't need to cut it as often. But the short almost army-buzzed haircut made Sam stand out.

That and the fact that he was also impossibly huge. Most of the Quileute men were big, but he was just abnormally big - probably 6'5" - and built up in a way that made me suspect steroid use. Not that I would have dared say that in front of Billy. He would probably just accuse me of being jealous of Sam's good looks and muscles. And I was. Slightly. Not that I would ever admit it.

We greeted each other with a curt nod. Sam grabbed some snacks and flipped through the paper while Embry rang him up. I was surprised when he lingered after paying.

"How's it going, Jacob?"

"Good, not much going on."

I was confused. Sam was a few years older than me and we had never been friends. But lately, he was always watching me, paying attention to me, and chatting with me whenever he had the chance. And I couldn't understand why. I wondered if he was trying to suck up to Billy through me. Clearly, he wasn't all that sharp if he thought that sucking up to me would get him anywhere.

"How's the Rabbit coming?" he asked with a smile.

Man, this was a small rez. It never ceased to amaze me how everybody knew everything about everyone.

"Good. Do you by any chance know where I could get a master cylinder?" I joked wryly.

Sam furrowed his brow. "No, but I'll ask around."

Wow, he was trying to suck up big time. I don't know why he bothered. I was a nobody.

"So I was thinking of heading down to the beach. A bunch of kids from Forks showed up to surf. I thought I'd go check them out."

It was impossible not to miss the slightly territorial edge to his voice. I was thinking of a polite way to decline when Quil enthusiastically accepted for the two of us. Quil actually thought Sam was cool. I suspected it was because Quil still hadn't hit his growth spurt yet, so the 90-lb weakling in him thought that Sam and his muscles were just the coolest thing ever. Shrugging an apology to Embry who had to stay behind at the store, we walked out into the parking lot and down to the beach.

The weather was still pretty cold despite the sunlight peeking through the clouds. The lot was deserted except for a Sentra and a Suburban that had a Forks High School basketball sticker in the back window. We saw a group of kids huddled around a fire by the driftwood logs, so we headed that way. I caught the smell of hot dogs and my stomach growled. Maybe this wasn't such a bad idea.

As we got closer, I could start making out distinct people. There was a girl sitting with her back to me with thick wavy shiny brown hair. I stumbled over my feet when it suddenly occurred to me that it could be her. Bella. Here in La Push. I stared eagerly at the girl but grudgingly had to rule her out when I saw that she was almost six feet tall and wearing glasses. I also ruled out a snooty looking blonde as well as a peppy looking girl with light brown hair. Both were overly made-up and dressed far too fashionably.

But with a pang, I realized that I hadn't actually seen Bella in over five years - so for all I knew, she could be any of those girls. I looked more closely at them again but ruled them out this time based on their facial features. It was slightly ridiculous that I had even hoped that she might be here. There were hundreds of girls in Forks. What were the odds that she were on the beach at the same time that I was?

At that moment, a few La Push girls joined the party as well. I noticed that the tall girl with glasses seemed shy and uncomfortable making small talk. In fact, that was probably what made me think of Bella in the first place I thought with a wry smile.

Quil introduced himself to the blonde and sat down right next to her, completely forgetting my existence. Subtlety was never his strong suit, but I wished sometimes that I had his guts. And his thick skin. Rejection never seemed to faze him.

Sam started chatting with a few of the guys, so I moved to stoke the fire which was sputtering from the humidity. The blue green driftwood flames were always mesmerizing; no matter how many times I had seen them in the past.

I looked up as a group of boys made their way out of the trees in the distance, their fancy Gore-Tex rain jackets contrasting sharply against the vivid green terrain. Lagging far behind them was a girl in a dark maroon jacket with her hood completely up obscuring her face. She was only just making her way through the gap in the trees when the others reached the campfire. Something about the way she carried herself caught my eye.

She was slim and shapely - I could see that even from this distance - but she was almost delicate-looking. In fact, she seemed far too delicate-looking for the intensely rugged landscape of La Push, something that she clearly recognized about herself as she very carefully picked her path out of the forest. Once onto the edge of the beach, she noticeably relaxed and started walking more quickly towards us when suddenly she almost tripped - apparently over her own two feet since there was nothing but sand in sight - and her hood fell down exposing masses of dark brown hair and an all-too-familiar face.

I laughed. It was Bella. And she hadn't changed. I don't know why I thought she would have, but Phoenix seemed such an alien place to me that I somehow expected her to have become blond and tanned by living there. But her hair and eyes were still the same warm chocolate-brown and her skin was still pale to the point of translucence.

I chuckled as I flashed back to memories of happy summer days spent on the beach while Charlie and Billy were fishing. I wondered if she would remember me. We had barely interacted back then aside from that one day of mud-pie-making. I remembered that she was painfully shy then - almost as shy as she was clumsy - and it seemed that not much had changed.

As she sat down next to the tall girl with the glasses, she looked over and caught me staring at her. I looked away quickly, feeling my cheeks grow hot in embarrassment. Damnit. Way to go, Jake. Real smooth. Why couldn't I have just said hi and introduced myself like any normal person?

"I'm Sam and this is Quil and Jacob."

I nodded my head as Sam said my name, lifting my head to meet Bella's curious eyes as she followed the introductions. I saw no flash of recognition whatsoever. Well that sucked. I guess I should have known that she wouldn't have remembered me.

A guy wearing a Forks HS letterman jacket brought her some sandwiches and soda. His possessiveness was unmistakable. Boyfriend, maybe? That would be pretty fast work. She had only gotten to Forks a few weeks ago. Not that it was any of my business, I reminded myself.

But I couldn't help the sigh of relief that flickered through me when I realized that he couldn't be her boyfriend, since Bella didn't seem the least interested in him. While he and the peppy brown-haired girl - who was most definitely interested - chatted away easily, Bella ate silently and almost methodically as she stared off at the crashing waves.

Not wanting to be caught looking at her again, I turned my attention to Quil and tried not to snicker as he grossly exaggerated both his exploits and his injuries from a recent dirt bike adventure to the snooty-looking blonde girl.

"It was sweet, man! We ended up taking this turn at like 75 and almost crashed into a tree!" Quil puffed out his chest with each word. A quick look at the blonde showed that she was clearly not impressed. Poor guy was wasting his time.

As lunch wrapped up, folks started to drift off. A few of the girls went for a walk downtown to check out the stores. Quil was engrossed in a heated debate with some guy over some baseball stats and Sam was sitting alone staring off into the distance. Clearly he had determined that these kids were no danger to the tribe. I scoffed. I could've told him that.

The guy who had fetched Bella's lunch got up to walk towards town, the peppy brown-haired girl tagging at his heels. He looked back wistfully at Bella but she wasn't paying attention at all, still staring off into the distance, lost in her thoughts. I figured that this was my chance.

I was suddenly ridiculously nervous. My palm were slick with sweat as I wracked my brain to come up with a shortlist of topics to discuss. I had had enough awkward conversations with girls to know that I couldn't go in unprepared. I prayed silently that I wouldn't say anything too stupid.

As I walked over to her, I examined her face closely to see if I could detect any big changes from the past few years. She had grown into her features, but she still had that same serious adult look about her that had set her apart even as a child. It made me chuckle, remembering how grown-up she had seemed compared to my sisters even then. She must have heard my laugh because she turned to look at me, her eyes wary and slightly annoyed.

"You're Isabella Swan, aren't you?"

"Bella," she responded automatically. I smiled. I wasn't sure where Isabella had come from. Nerves I guess.

"I'm Jacob Black." I reached out to shake her hand before I could think. I had forgotten that my palms were still slightly sweaty.

She looked relieved as she reached out her hand. "Oh, you're Billy's son. I probably should remember you."

Ouch. Well I guess I shouldn't have been surprised.

"No, I'm the youngest of the family — you would remember my older sisters." I smiled brightly, masking any signs of disappointment.

"Rachel and Rebecca," she responded with a half-smile. "Are they here?" She turned to scan the La Push girls, seemingly anxious that she might have offended them by not recognizing them

"No. Rachel got a scholarship to Washington State, and Rebecca married a Samoan surfer — she lives in Hawaii now."

"Married. Wow." She looked stunned.

"So how do you like the truck?" I asked, checking off the first box on my mental list of conversation topics.

"I love it. It runs great." Her eyes lit up at the mention of the old Chevy.

"Yeah, but it's really slow. I was so relieved when Charlie bought it. My dad wouldn't let me work on building another car when we had a perfectly good vehicle right there." I laughed self-consciously hoping that she'd be semi-impressed that I had built it for her.

"It's not that slow," she frowned as she pouted slightly.

"Have you tried to go over sixty?"

"No," she admitted with a sheepish expression.

"Good. Don't," I joked with a teasing grin. She suddenly grinned back, the first time I had seen her smile all afternoon. I was mesmerized by it, the way it lit up her whole face.

"It does great in a collision," she conceded grudgingly.

"I don't think a tank could take out that old monster" I quipped which elicited an even bigger smile from her. I felt my stomach doing cartwheels inside me in response. But it was so easy to talk to her. It seemed absurd now that I had worried about what I would say.

"So you build cars?" she asked with a bright smile.

So she was impressed. I tried to clamp down on my excitement so that I wouldn't blush. "When I have free time and parts. You wouldn't happen to know where I could get my hands on a master cylinder for a 1986 Volkswagen Rabbit?" I joked, trying not to wince at the memory of practicing this joke on Sam earlier.

She laughed this time. Her smile had done weird things to my insides, but her laugh was like a punch in the gut. Suddenly, I knew that I would do anything in my power to hear that laugh again.

"Sorry, I haven't seen any lately, but I'll keep my eyes open for you." She smiled at me with an open friendliness now, which was a marked departure from her demeanor all afternoon with the Forks kids. Just then, the brisk ocean breeze swirled around us, ruffling her hair and painting her cheeks a soft pink. She looked so enchantingly lovely that I nearly forgot to breathe

"You know Bella, Jacob?" interrupted the snooty blonde that Quil had tried to chat up earlier.

"We've sort of known each other since I was born," I cut in, smiling at her. I tried not to let it go to my head when she smiled back

"How nice," the blonde said, clearly meaning anything but that. I looked carefully at her and then back at Bella, sensing the tension between them. I guess the arrival of a new girl in town had ruffled some feathers. It must be over a boy. As far as I could tell, that was the main reason why women didn't get along.

"Bella," she called again, watching Bella intently, "I was just saying to Tyler that it was too bad none of the Cullens could come out today. Didn't anyone think to invite them?"

Sam looked up quickly. "You mean Dr. Carlisle Cullen's family?"

"Yes, do you know them?" she responded with a condescending sneer.

"The Cullens don't come here," Sam replied abruptly. He caught my eye as he said it, but I looked away. I could never understand what the deal was with the Cullens. The elders of the tribe hated them because of this old trumped up legend - one that sounded about as real as the tooth fairy. Even my dad, one of the most fair-minded people that I knew, didn't like them either. It was just strange.

I turned to see Bella staring at Sam. It was clear that she hadn't missed the territorial edge in his voice either. Wanting to distract her from dwelling on it, I jumped in, "So is Forks driving you insane yet?"

"Oh, I'd say that's an understatement." She said turning away with a half smile half grimace. She seemed to pause for a moment, and then she turned back with a completely different smile on her face. A blindingly radiant full-wattage smile that completely fogged up my brain. "Do you want to walk down the beach with me?"

If I didn't know better, I would have thought she was flirting with me. Trying not to get my hopes up, I agreed readily. We walked north towards the cliffs.

"So you're what, sixteen?" she asked softly.

Ridiculously flattered, I blushed and then mentally cursed myself, which of course just made me blush more. "I just turned fifteen."

"Really? I would have thought you were older."

"I'm tall for my age," I explained trying not to sound too boastful.

"Do you come up to Forks much?" she asked hopefully. Wow, she was definitely flirting with me.

"Not too much. But when I get my car finished I can go up as much as I want," I replied eagerly. "Well, after I get my license," I amended as I remembered that she was Charlie's daughter and he wouldn't condone her driving around with someone without a license. Damnit. That would be another year. I had my permit – we got them at 15 on the rez – but we could only drive chaperoned by a licensed driver and I didn't exactly want to bring Billy with me on a date. Not that she and I were going on a date or anything anytime soon. I had to stop getting carried away.

"Who was that other boy Lauren was talking to? He seemed a little old to be hanging out with us," she abruptly changed topics but her smile was as radiant as ever.

"That's Sam — he's nineteen."

"What was that he was saying about the doctor's family?"

I looked away, not sure how to respond. Deciding to go with the half-truth, I replied, "The Cullens? Oh, they're not supposed to come onto the reservation."

"Why not?" she pressed on.

I bit my lip wryly. "I'm not supposed to say anything about that."

"Oh, I won't tell anyone, I'm just curious," she said with another one of those smiles that went straight to my head and the battle was lost. Plus, what did it matter? Charlie was practically family, so that meant she was too. And I never understood why the elders felt so strongly about keeping our tribal legends secret anyways. Some of our stories were pretty cool actually. Making up my mind, I turned to her with a smile.

"Do you like scary stories?" I asked, trying to sound mysterious without verging into cheesy horror movie territory.

"I love them." She grinned eagerly, her eyes filling with excitement and interest. I was a goner. I strolled over and sat down on a big white driftwood log as I tried to remember all of the components of the stories. I didn't want to leave anything out.

"Do you know any of our old stories, about where we came from — the Quileutes, I mean?"

"Not really," she admitted apologetically.

"Well, there are lots of legends, some of them claiming to date back to the Flood —supposedly, the ancient Quileutes tied their canoes to the tops of the tallest trees on the mountain to survive like Noah and the ark." I rolled my eyes a little at that. "Another legend claims that we descended from wolves — and that the wolves are our brothers still. It's against tribal law to kill them. Then there are the stories about the cold ones." I paused for effect.

"The cold ones?" She sat down next to me, but had turned so that she could face me fully and I could see the confusion written across her face.

"Yes. There are stories of the cold ones as old as the wolf legends, and some much more recent. According to legend, my own great-grandfather knew some of them. He was the one who made the treaty that kept them off our land." I definitely rolled my eyes now. When these stories were told at the tribal meetings, this was the point at which everyone turned to look at Billy and me.

"Your great-grandfather?" she prompted me to continue.

"He was a tribal elder, like my father. You see, the cold ones are the natural enemies of the wolf—well, not the wolf, really, but the wolves that turn into men, like our ancestors. You would call them werewolves." I raised my eyebrow expecting her to see fear in her eyes, but she had virtually no reaction. I guess she was tougher than she appeared to be.

"Werewolves have enemies?" she pressed on.

"Only one," I corrected. Her face was so easy to read. She was clearly struggling to process the story. To make it easier on her, I continued. "So you see, the cold ones are traditionally our enemies. But this pack that came to our territory during my great-grandfather's time was different. They didn't hunt the way others of their kind did — they weren't supposed to be dangerous to the tribe. So my great-grandfather made a truce with them. If they would promise to stay off our lands, we wouldn't expose them to the pale-faces."

I winked at her then before I could think. I hoped it wasn't dorky, but she barely seemed to notice as she was fully absorbed in trying to make sense of the story.

"If they weren't dangerous, then why… ?"

"There's always a risk for humans to be around the cold ones, even if they're civilized like this clan was. You never know when they might get too hungry to resist." I was laying it on pretty thick, but she seemed to respond to it.

"What do you mean, 'civilized'?"

"They claimed that they didn't hunt humans. They supposedly were somehow able to prey on animals instead."

"So how does it fit in with the Cullens? Are they like the cold ones your great grandfather met?" She clamped her lips together, mulling over what I just said.

I paused for dramatic effect. And also because this was the part of the story when things went from your run-of-the mill scary story to just downright absurd. I hope she wouldn't start laughing.

"No. They are the same ones."

She caught her breath but her eyes were still puzzled as they raked over my face.

"There are more of them now, a new female and a new male, but the rest are the same. In my great-grandfather's time they already knew of the leader, Carlisle. He'd been here and gone before your people had even arrived." I stopped with a bitter smile, it seemed strange speaking ill of the kindly doctor. I didn't know much about him, but I knew that Charlie and the folks in Forks loved him.

"And what are they? What are the cold ones?" she asked eagerly, unconsciously reaching out to touch my arm. Despite the lightness and coolness of her hand, her touch burned straight through my jacket and I could feel the shape of her hand imprinted onto my arm.

I raised my eyebrow as I steadied my voice for the punchline. "Blood drinkers. Your people call them vampires."

She turned abruptly with her arms folded around her, but not before I saw the fear, disbelief, and strangely enough - comprehension – flit through her eyes. But there was no sign of the condescension or ridicule that I had feared. Suddenly uncomfortable that I had said too much, I tried to lighten the mood.

"You have goose bumps," I teased lightly.

"You're a good storyteller," she complimented without turning to look back at me.

"Pretty crazy stuff, though, isn't it? No wonder my dad doesn't want us to talk about it to anyone."

She continued to stare out at the sea. "Don't worry, I won't give you away." She mumbled softly, her voice barely a whisper above the wind.

"I guess I just violated the treaty," I ventured, laughing to make sure she knew that it was a joke.

"I'll take it to the grave," she promised and then she shivered. I wondered if it the cold or something else.

"Seriously, though, don't say anything to Charlie. He was pretty mad at my dad when he heard that some of us weren't going to the hospital since Dr. Cullen started working there."

"I won't, of course not," she responded automatically, barely seeming to register that I was still there.

Concerned suddenly that maybe she did think this was all just ridiculous small-town stuff, I asked. "So do you think we're a bunch of superstitious natives or what?"

She turned finally to look at me with a smile, but there was something hesitant now about the smile. "No. I think you're very good at telling scary stories, though. I still have goose bumps, see?" She pulled up the sleeve of her jacket to show me proof.

"Cool." I figured I'd let it drop. Billy would be unhappy that I had told anyone, even if it was just Charlie's daughter. Plus I wasn't sure of how to interpret her reaction.

We both looked up at the sound of footsteps, as the letterman jacket guy from lunch came into view along with the peppy brown-haired girl. I figured I should learn their names at some point since they were clearly Bella's friends.

"There you are, Bella," the guy called in relief, waving his hand rapidly. He gave me the once-over with an unmistakably hostile look in his eyes.

Before I could stop myself, I asked Bella quietly, "Is that your boyfriend?"

"No, definitely not," she whispered back reassuringly, keeping her voice low as they approached us.

I was relieved. I hadn't pegged her for the jock type, but what did I know. And he had a nice car, I thought, thinking wistfully of the Suburban that I had seen in the parking lot. I looked at her cautiously trying to gauge the situation before my brain run amuck with the possibilities. She had definitely been flirting with me before when she suggested that we go for a walk, but now, she seemed completely distracted and detached, despite her warm smiles.

"So when I get my license…"I began hopefully. I was channeling Quil's guts here in pressing the issue.

"You should come see me in Forks. We could hang out sometime," she replied immediately with an unmistakably genuine smile.

I beamed. Maybe I was overanalyzing things. The jock had reached us now. He had stopped appraising me. Clearly, he didn't think I posed any competition because he ignored me and turned to Bella.

"Where have you been?" he asked slightly grumpily.

"Jacob was just telling me some local stories," Bella responded with an affectionate smile at me. "It was really interesting."

My hopes rose. She was definitely trying to use me to warn off this guy. Now if only I could figure out if I was just a handy prop or something more than that.

"Well," he said looking back and forth at the two of us speculatively. "We're packing up — it looks like it's going to rain soon."

I looked up, surprised to see ominous-looking rain clouds rolling in off the ocean. The afternoon had been the brightest few hours of a long winter, but I guess it wasn't surprising that the clouds were back. They always came back to La Push at some point.

"Okay, I'm coming." Bella got up, almost tripping over her feet in the process, as she turned to me.

"It was nice to see you again," I said, emphasizing the _again_ for the jock's benefit.

"It really was. Next time Charlie comes down to see Billy, I'll come, too," she promised.

"That would be cool." And I'd definitely make sure to bug Billy about getting Charlie over to visit ASAP.

"And thanks," she added as she turned to follow the others back to the parking lot.

Confused for a moment about what she was thanking me for, I watched as they made their way back to the cars. Was she thanking me for telling her those stories? And if so, why? It seemed like I had answered some question for her – there was that strange look of comprehension dawning in her eyes when I had told her about the cold ones . But I couldn't figure out why she would even care about our crazy legends. Unless ... my mind wandering back on the conversation ... it was the Cullens that she was interested in learning about.

I frowned. I had never understood the tribe's prejudice against them. Dr. Cullen seemed perfectly nice, albeit far too young, rich, and good-looking to be as good of a doctor as they said he was. I mean, the man worked at a hospital for crying out loud! Surrounded by bleeding humans all the time. If he were a vampire - if such things existed - he had to be the most controlled and compassionate vampire in the world! I had always secretly wondered if those crazy farfetched stories had been elaborated out of jealousy. Not that I would ever say that to Billy.

But that must be it. Bella must have met the Cullen kids at school and become curious about them. That was natural. I wondered uneasily if it was a guy that she was curious to learn more about. I didn't know how I could compete with the rich, gorgeous son of a doctor. Not that I was even in the race, I reminded myself harshly. She was a junior and I was a freshman. She was way out of my league. Light-years out of my league. We weren't even remotely in the same universe of leagues.

I was an idiot for even hoping. Dream on, buddy. Just because she smiled a lot at me did NOT mean that she was interested in me. I repeated this to myself over and over again as I started walking back towards Quil and the others. But I couldn't stop smiling.


	4. Interrogation

**Chapter 4: Interrogation**

Billy was cooking when I got home, stirring something warm and fragrant in a simmering pot.

"Chili for dinner?" He wheeled himself over to grab the mail that I had brought in.

"One of my favs." I washed my hands quickly and set the table. Two bowls. Two forks. It was easy now with my sisters gone. No frills. No fuss.

"You know, you could learn to make it yourself seeing how much you like it," he suggested, chuckling at his little joke.

"Yeah, well, you know what happened the last time you tried to teach me to cook," I snorted as I ladled food into our bowls. It was just lucky that I hadn't done any permanent damage to the house.

We chuckled. Rachel had tried to teach us both before she left. Suffice to say that Billy was a quicker study than I was, ruining only a handful of pans before getting the gist of how to put decent food on the table without scorching it, or us, in the process. I, on the other hand, had a bad tendency to get distracted while cooking and had burned my way through so many pans that both Rachel and Billy had given up, much to our mutual relief.

"So how was the beach? Do any fishing?"

"Please, you know I don't fish." I grimaced as I wolfed down my dinner. I could just imagine Quil's reaction if I had suggested that we go fishing, which was the cool thing to do among the older La Push crowd. Which was precisely why it was so _not_ cool among my crowd.

"You've never tried!" he protested.

"I don't need to. Trust me."

We were quiet for a while as we both ate, with only the sound of our chewing breaking the silence. That was another thing that was nice about the girls being gone. Peace and quiet with no feminine compulsion to fill up the silence. And yet, that was also one of the worst things about them being gone. The house felt eerily restless and entirely devoid of any female presence.

"So did you see Bella at the beach?" Billy asked suddenly.

I almost choked mid-bite. He raised an eyebrow as he whacked me on the back. Regaining control of myself, I returned his gaze warily as I felt my face flushing.

"How did you know she would be at the beach?" I asked as casually as I could with a flaming red face.

"Charlie called and mentioned that she was heading our way. I figured that you guys were bound to run into each other. So, did you see her?"

Billy concentrated intently on his spoonful of chili as he asked, but I wasn't fooled. I could sense his curiosity, which only made me turn a brighter shade of red.

"Yeah, I saw her," I muttered, unsure of what to say next. "Ah ... she didn't actually remember me."

I shrugged, as casually as I could, remembering the confused and slightly wary look on her face when I approached her.

"Well that's no surprise. You were barely out of diapers the last time she saw you."

"I was nine years old!" I rolled my eyes and stood up abruptly to grab a drink of water.

"Exactly my point," chuckled Billy, smiling broadly at his own lame joke.

Not wanting to dignify that with a response, I stacked our empty dishes - all two of them - and moved towards the sink.

"Still, it's been a while. Plus you guys never played much together anyways. Bet she would have remembered the girls."

"Yeah, she did."

"Did she say anything about how she's liking Forks?"

"Not really."

"I'll be she's loving all the rain."

"Yeah, something like that," I mumbled as I turned the sink on high and noisily began soaping up the dishes. Taking the hint, Billy pushed away from the table and started moving toward the living room.

Damnit. I knew I was being unreasonable. I had wanted him to stop talking about Bella, and yet now I was annoyed that he had. I couldn't help wondering what Charlie had said about her. Did she like Forks? Did she miss Phoenix? Was she making friends? What about guys? Was there a boyfriend back in Phoenix, maybe?

I wondered what her type was. Definitely not a jock. That would be almost comical given her own complete lack of coordination. That boded well for me, I was decently athletic but no jock. Charlie had mentioned in the past that she was pretty smart, taking almost all honors and AP classes, but she didn't seem too geeky to me. Also a good thing, I was a decent student but not great. That seemed to be a commonality here. I was really just your average guy, decent at most things and exceptional in none of them. I wondered if she ...

"You know, I think that plate is clean enough. You've rinsed it off about five times already. Something on your mind?"

"No, I'm fine." I shut the faucet off quickly and busied myself rearranging the rest of the dishes on the rack to make room. It was the nightly ritual at our house now. Billy cooked and I cleaned. And neither of us were terribly good at our tasks but we made do.

I wiped down the table, tided up the countertops, and was about to turn off the lights and move towards the garage, when I gave into my curiosity.

"So, what did Charlie say?" I asked, as nonchalantly as I could as I idled by the front door.

"Hmm?" Billy asked, without looking up from his book.

"About Bella. What did Charlie say about Bella?" I persisted, trying hard not to blush yet again at the sound of her name.

Looking up from his book, Billy gazed at me thoughtfully for a few moments before responding. "Not much. She's made some friends. You probably met them today. They seem nice?"

"Yeah, they're cool." Well not really. At least not that Mike kid who so clearly saw himself as Bella's boyfriend-to-be. But the others didn't seem too bad.

"Good. Charlie was worried at first. Didn't know how she'd adapt to life here. It's not Phoenix, that's for sure."

There was no place like home for Billy. And for me too. But then again, I had never been out of the state, so how would I know?

"I told Charlie not to worry. She takes after him in many ways. Quiet. Self-sufficient. But he still worries." Billy shrugged as he turned back to his book.

"What's Renee like?" I asked, curious about the side of Bella that I knew almost nothing about. Charlie, I knew almost as well as my own father. He had been a presence in my life for as long as I could remember.

Billy looked uncomfortable and unsure of what to say. That was one of the things that I respected the most about him. He was fair. Well except when it came to the Cullens and to Sam. But for the most part, he was un-judgmental and pretty even-keeled. You could always count on him to be rationale and think through both sides. It made it hard sometimes as his son though. It definitely dampened any sense of rebellion when you knew he wouldn't yell or fight you about it. If anything, he'd probably understand and help me justify my behavior. I was lucky I knew. Far luckier than some of the other guys like Embry, whose mom nagged and grounded him for every little thing.

"Renee was great. Is great," Billy corrected himself. "She and Charlie were really happy. They were high school sweethearts. I remember they used to come down to the beach. Renee was so friendly that all the guys would flirt with her, which drove Charlie nuts. But he knew Renee was just teasing. He lightened up when he was with her."

I smiled to myself, trying to reconcile the Charlie that I knew with a younger romantic jealous type.

"So what happened?" I asked.

"Well, they got married right after high school. Had Bella. And then reality hit I guess." Billy said ruefully. "I remember how that is. You're young and in love and everything is great. Until you have kids and then suddenly you realize that you have responsibilities and your life is not yours anymore and it can be very scary. Especially if you were always hoping to have another life."

I looked at him pointedly. What was he trying to tell me?

"I'm not saying that kids aren't worth it," he grinned, "but Renee had never planned on staying in Forks. It was cold and rainy and she was a warm-weather girl at heart. But Charlie had just joined the police force and his mother was here and in bad health, so there was no question of him leaving. And so they fought and eventually, she left – taking Bella with her - and that was that."

"It seems like she might have thought of that before she decided to fall in love with him," I commented skeptically.

Billy looked at me with an amused smile. "It's not so easy to think rationally when you're in love. Things just fall by the wayside."

"Right. Does Bella take after her mom at all?"

"Well now, you've seen her most recently than I have. You tell me."

I shrugged. "Not really. She seems all Charlie to me."

"Yeah. Charlie's a good guy. He never really got over it. Your mother used to keep in touch with Renee. She used to say that it was Forks that broke up their marriage. It wasn't them. "

I mulled over what he said. Bella didn't seem much like Renee at all in that sense. Sure, she had quipped about small time life in Forks, but her demeanor didn't suggest that she hated it here. Deciding that I had pushed my luck enough for an evening, I headed out the door before Billy could ask any follow-up questions that I wasn't prepared to answer.


	5. Hard Time

**Chapter 5: Hard Time**

I wasn't quite so lucky the next day when Quil and Embry showed up to hang out in my garage. They were there ostensibly so that we could fix up Embry's dirt bike, but it didn't take long before Quil started in on Bella.

"So, did Jacob tell you that he was hitting on Charlie's kid?" Quil asked Embry with a smirk.

"I was NOT hitting on her." I growled as I threw him a dirty look. He was lucky that I didn't throw anything else at him.

"That's not what it looked like to me," he taunted.

"No fair, I wasn't there! What happened?" Embry asked excitedly.

I glared at him too. I had expected that he would be on my side. Deciding that ignoring both of them was the safest course of action, I started working on the bike.

"Yeah, well Jake here lost no time. As soon as she was sitting by herself, bam! He made a move and got in there. And then they went off for a long walk by themselves." Quil waggled his eyebrows at me but I continued to ignore him. "Though they didn't go far, they were just sitting by that bleached driftwood tree. I couldn't see too clearly but it did look like they were sitting pretty close together."

I continued to ignore him.

"Man, why do I always miss the good stuff?" Embry wailed.

Quil rolled his eyes. "Hey! I missed the good stuff too. Jake's the only one who got any good stuff yesterday. Just how good the stuff was though, you'll have to ask him."

That did it.

"You did not miss out on anything. We were just talking. That's all," I spit out, knowing that I was stupid for even rising to the bait.

"A trifle defensive there, aren't we?" Quil said with a speculative gleam in his eye. "I was actually just kidding man, didn't think you'd take it so seriously."

Great. Now I had set myself up for more torture.

"What does she look like?" Embry asked curiously

"Brown hair, brown eyes, kind of pale, short, and skinny," Quil said dismissively. I snorted. His taste in women ran to the obvious. "But I guess Jake here is no Romeo himself."

"Yeah, and what, you are?" I shot back, angry at myself for having been goaded into having this discussion.

"Just you wait. I've got a plan to bulk up." Quil launched into a description of some high-protein diet and weight-lifting regimen that he had planned for himself. Embry caught my eye and we both hid our smiles. Quil had been making plans since we were 10 for how he'd become the next Incredible Hulk. We were still waiting for it to happen. Embry turned to grab some snacks out of the grocery bag he brought with him, and I tuned Quil out entirely as I focused on the work I was doing.

"Hey! You guys aren't listening to me," Quil whined when he realized that he was talking to himself.

"I am listening to you, but I guess Jake's too busy thinking about Bella," Embry said with a sly smile.

Traitor. Maybe he should try to fix his own bike I thought sourly.

"Speaking of which, I forgot to mention that I did some spying work for you my man!"

I looked at Quil skeptically. I had no idea what he was talking about, but I was sure it wasn't good.

"What?! I did you a favor. My dad and I went into Forks today to pick up some new hiking gear and we went to that store. You know, Newton's something or other . The one by the library?"

"Yeah?" I hesitated before answering, not sure that I actually wanted to know what he was talking about.

"Well the letterman jacket guy from yesterday was there – his parents own the place. I knew he looked familiar." Quil grinned, clearly pleased with his detective work.

"Who's the letterman jacket?" Embry asked.

"Jake's main competition. He was all over Bella yesterday and the dude did not look happy when our boy here snuck her away right under his nose."

I smiled, I couldn't help myself. The letterman jock was a jerk. And if he really was my main competition, then I was in good shape.

"So anyway, he and I were chatting and he's totally worried about you man. He tried to ask me – pretending to be all casual and stuff - about how you knew Bella," Quil scoffed. "I told him that your parents were tight and so you guys will probably see each other all the time now. Bet that'll keep him up at night."

"Well that may be true, but unfortunately, it also doesn't mean anything. She didn't even remember who I was," I said with a shrug. I was trying not to dwell on that too much. I knew it was stupid, but it seemed strange that I remembered her so well while she didn't remember me at all.

"So what?" Embry said reassuringly. "The girls on the rez remember you as a kid but it hasn't done you much good so far. Maybe it's better that she doesn't remember what a whiny brat you were."

"Thanks," I said sarcastically. But suddenly, I felt relieved. Maybe he had a point.

"Hey, I'm just trying to see the cup half full. Plus, what does it matter as long as you guys hit it off yesterday?" Embry continued encouragingly.

"We did not hit it off. We talked."

I saw Quil open his mouth to ask something, so I figured that I would beat him to the punch. "If you must know, we talked about the Quileute legends."

"That's how you pick up chicks, Jake?" Quil looked utterly disgusted as he rolled his eyes. "Man, you are hopeless. You should just give up now."

"You gotta admit, that is kinda weird. Whatever happened to talking about movies and music, man?" Embry added unhelpfully.

"Well she asked about the Cullens. You remember. Sam made that remark about how they don't come here. So she was curious, that's all." I responded defensively at first but I was suddenly unsure about my decision to tell Bella the stories.

"So did you tell her?" Quil asked curiously. His grandfather was an elder too. But unlike me, Quil loved the status that it brought. He was very much a Sam-in-the-making. We were just hoping that he wouldn't be quite so annoying when it happened.

"Sort of," I admitted, not wanting to lie outright. "I mostly told a watered down version of the stories. You know, just to scare her a little."

"You didn't break the treaty, did you?" Quil demanded, suddenly looking every bit like his grandfather when he got worked up at council meetings.

"Well …" I flushed guiltily. I didn't know why I thought I'd be able to lie about it. I had never been a convincing liar. Too conscientious, Billy would say. Too stupid was what I would say.

"Man! I can't believe you did that?!" Quil exclaimed with a shout. "You know that's bad, right? What if she tells someone?!"

"Please! First of all, she's Charlie's daughter and Charlie is practically an honorary Quileute…"

"But he's not one of us. If he were, your dad and Harry would have told him themselves ….." Quil retorted.

"Maybe it's because they're embarrassed of our stupid stories," I shot back. "It's ridiculous, they're just crazy stories that someone made up at some point. Why are we so secretive about them?"

Then I remembered, "Wait! You don't even believe them yourself. Why do you even care?"

Quil flushed. "That is not the point! They may be a bunch of mumbo-jumbo, but they're OUR Stories. They belong to US! You can't just tell them to random people."

"Bella is not some random person," I gritted through my teeth.

"Clearly!" he shouted back.

We glared at each other, ripe with anger and frustration. It pissed me off when Quil went off on his stupid Sam imitation, and I know it pissed him off that I never took our tribal stuff more seriously.

Suddenly I remembered something. "You told Embry the stories! And he's not technically Quileute."

I looked at Embry apologetically. I knew that he was sensitive about it. He was a Makah – or at least his mother was, we didn't know who his father was – so that meant that he was often left out of the loop on the rez happenings. Quil and I considered him a Quileute-in-spirit though, which meant that we told him everything.

"That's different," Quil responded, though with significantly less enthusiasm than before.

"No, it's not. She's just like Embry. She may not be born a Quileute, but she's one of us. " I replied not backing down. As far as I was concerned, it was exactly the same situation. Bella just happened to be a girl that I liked. One that I probably couldn't have said no to anyway. Not when she smiled at me the way she had. My mind drifted off at the memory of what her smile did to her face, the flush on her cheeks, and the way she had leaned towards me and smelled so unbelievably good …

"Oy! You better not be thinking about what I think you're thinking about!" Quil muttered mutinously.

I looked down quickly at the tools I had been working with, avoiding his glare at all costs. Embry had calmly ignored our entire exchange as he polished up the rims of the bike. We got into spats all the time so he was used to just letting us blow off steam. We sat in silence for a few minutes before Quil finally spoke.

"Okay, fine. I won't say anything. I just think you shouldn't treat them so lightly," he grumbled.

Knowing that was about as much of an apology or truce I would ever get from him, I nodded in agreement. I was just glad he wasn't going to rat me out to Billy.

"So …" Embry paused, clearly trying to think of another topic to discuss. "Were there any other Forks girls at the beach?"

I smiled. Fair was fair. "Well, Quil was chatting up this blonde for quite a while. He was telling her all about his thrilling dirt bike exploits."

Quil laughed. He wasn't bothered the least bit by my teasing.

"Lauren something or other. She was hot man. Did you see her …" He used his hands to outline her silhouette. As I said, Quil's taste ran to the obvious. "But way too high maintenance man. So not worth it…"

I snorted. Like he even had a chance with her. I suddenly remembered something. "I got the impression that she and Bella didn't like each other. Do you know why?"

Quil scrunched up his forehead as he thought about it. "No, she didn't say anything."

"Well I'll bet it's because Bella's the new girl," Embry offered. "I bet she's getting all the attention and it's pissing this other girl off."

Quil and I both turned to look at him. Since when did Embry become the expert in women?

"What?! My mom watches a lot of soaps and so I've picked up a few things." Embry replied defensively. "All I know is that when it comes to girls fighting, it's always about a guy."

He could be right. That would also explain why Bella had looked at me so warily when I first approached her. Maybe the guys in Forks were pestering her for dates or something. I frowned, that couldn't be good for me. Man, this whole thing was turning me inside out. I was a pretty happy-go-lucky guy usually. Being this anxious and worked out about something was weird for me.

"Back to Bella," Quil said. I winced, not sure if he was going to lecture me again or make a crude joke. "Why was she interested in the legends anyway? Does she know the Cullens?"

"I don't know, she didn't say." I was wondering the same thing myself.

"Cuz speaking of blondes, the Cullen's daughter or foster daughter or whatever she is, now that is what I call one hot blonde." Quil said, his voice full of appreciation.

Quil made it off the reservation a lot more often than Embry or I did. Embry spent most of his weekends helping his mom and traveling anywhere wasn't easy for Billy.

"Yeah? Is it true that they're all dating or something?" Embry asked curiously.

"Don't know, I've only met two of the kids," Quil explained. "We ran into Dr. Cullen once at the police station when dad was chatting with Charlie. His daughter and son were waiting by the car - you should have seen the size of that guy. He was huge."

"Bigger than Sam?" Embry wondered skeptically.

"Oh yeah. By at least a few inches." Quil admitted clearly impressed. And that really was saying something. Sam was one of the biggest guys I had ever seen. "I think he and the blonde were definitely together though," he continued with a frown.

I smirked. "Not that you had a chance to begin with …"

"You never know. Once you go Quileute, you don't go back!" Quil waggled his eyebrows.

"Well I guess that's the secret then. Get pumped and you'll get girls," I rolled my eyes. "It worked for Sam, too, didn't it?" I added as an afterthought.

"I'm working on it," he responded ignoring our chuckles. "Laugh all you want now, but when I'm getting all the chicks, don't say I didn't tell you."

"I won't hold my breath," I retorted.

"I think I've seen Dr. Cullen's other son," Embry said suddenly.

We looked up at him surprised. Embry made it off the reservation more infrequently than I did.

"Which one?" Quil asked.

"I don't know – how many does he have?"

Quil scrunched his forehead. He always did that – unconsciously I think - when he was trying to think and it made him look like a monkey. "Three, I think. I can't remember. There's the one that I saw and I think there are two others."

"Well it was at the hospital. My mom went in to have some tests done back in January."

"You guys went to Dr. Cullen?" Quil was surprised. It was no secret that the Quileutes did not see Dr. Cullen.

"Not all of our parents can take time off of work to drive out to Hoquaim anytime they need to see a doctor," Embry retorted tersely.

"Fine, fine. It's your neck if you want to be treated by Dr. Fang," Quil shrugged.

I shot him a warning look. None of us were well-off by any means, but Embry's mother struggled more than others did to support herself and Embry.

"Anyway, it was fine," he continued. "But as we were leaving, there was some commotion going on. I think there was a car accident at Forks High School or something because the lobby was full of kids. I saw Dr. Cullen talking to a gorgeous blonde girl … "

"Was she?" Quil's hands outlined the rest.

"Yes," Embry responded enthusiastically as they hi-fived each other. Man, she really must be gorgeous if it was making Embry behave like Quil.

"That's the one. Told you she was hot." Quil guffawed. "Maybe we should drive Jake here out to see her. Might make him rethink this whole Bella situation."

I ignored him again. I was rapidly finding that to be the safest thing to do with Quil these days.

"So anyways, there was also this other guy with him. He was gorgeous too …" Embry stammered a bit under Quil's stare. Quil's vocabulary did not extend to using gorgeous to describe a guy.

Defensively, Embry continued, "Well he was! You should have seen all the nurses drooling over him and Dr. Cullen."

I quickly processed what they were saying. So Dr. Cullen's sons – or at least two of them – were gorgeous. And they both went to Forks High School. And Bella was asking me about them.

I suddenly felt deflated. So that's why she wanted to know about the Cullens. Not only was I a prop to ward off guys that she wasn't interested in, but I was also stupid enough to give her the gossip about the guys she was interested in. Man, I was an idiot. To think that I thought she was actually flirting with me. My face must have betrayed my thoughts because Quil and Embry were both looking at me quizzically.

Scowling, I jumped up and walked over to the tool box. I needed a moment away to sort out my jumbled thoughts. So maybe she was curious about the Cullens. Who wouldn't be? They definitely were the most interesting folks in town, so that wasn't surprising.

And she did like me– at least as a friend – I knew I wasn't wrong about that. I remembered suddenly the warmth of her smile and how easily we chatted the afternoon away and the knot in my stomach eased slightly. I didn't click with many people so it was unmistakable when I did click with someone. And we chatted away so easily and comfortably each other, that had to mean something.

"Well, I just say that life is unfair," Quil continued as I turned around. "I mean, the guy is …gorgeous …" He winced as he said that. "… loaded and has a nice car. How are the rest of us supposed to compete?"

"Let me know if you figure that one out," I responded with a wry smile.

"There are other things that girls find attractive," Embry insisted emphatically.

We both looked at him with our eyebrows raised.

"Is this another lesson from a soap opera?" Quil cackled.

"So what if it is! I live in a household of women," Embry retorted.

"So do I!" Quil responded wincing at the thought of his three younger sisters.

"It's not the same. Your dad and your grandfather evens it out." Embry dismissed. "There's my mom and my sister and that's it. I'm around women all the time."

"What are we, chopped liver?" I teased.

"You know what I mean." He looked at us in exasperation. "Look, all I'm saying is that good looks and money help, but they're not everything. Look at Sam."

"He's pretty good-looking," Quil argued.

Now it was our turn to stare at him.

"What?" He said defensively, "He is! Objectively speaking!"

"If you say so," Embry and I said at the same time as we burst into laughter. It was almost too easy making fun of Quil's hero-worship of Sam.

"Anyway, but Sam isn't rich and he's not anybody special …" Embry continued.

"He's an elder of the tribe," Quil pointed out.

"Exactly his point," I retorted. "Go on, Embry."

"He's just a nice guy. A good guy at heart and women want that."

I raised my eyebrow. Maybe the Sam hero-worship was contagious.

Catching my eye, Embry hastened to explain, "Look, that's what my mom says about him, alright? Every time he comes into the store, she sighs and tells me how he's a great catch because he's actually a good decent guy unlike his father…"

We all looked at each other. Joshua Uley had died many years ago but the stories about him lived on. If his son, Sam, was held up as a role model, then Joshua was definitely the cautionary tale of what we happened when you didn't listen to the elders. We never knew the full story. All we heard were snippets about the womanizing, gambling, and alcoholism that had led to his early death.

"So what does he do that makes him a good guy?" Quil grumbled unhappily.

"Well he's honest and trustworthy-"

"Yeah, ask Leah about that," I retorted but Embry ignored me.

"-and he's just really a responsible. He's really dedicated to his work and the tribe – my mom talks about that a lot too."

"Great, so I'll never make the cut" I said with a mock sigh.

"Works for me!" Quil crowed as he pumped his fist.

"My point is just this." Embry looked at me pointedly as he said this, "Good guys win in the end. Girls may be dazzled by good looks and money, but in the end, they just want the nice guy."

"Yeah, but don't you have to say that because you're a nice guy, too?" I reminded him.

"Yeah, maybe." We laughed as we cleaned up and headed back to the house. But I knew what Embry had been trying to say and I hoped desperately that he was right.


	6. Deflated

**Chapter 6: Deflated**

I tried not to bug Billy about going to see Charlie since I didn't want to make myself too obvious. Or at least, more obvious than I already had been. But fate lent a helping hand. Our TV broke Sunday night, which meant that Billy couldn't watch his beloved Mariners play. I casually suggested that he watch Thursday night's big game at Harry's house, knowing full well that Harry would be out of town. Seth had mentioned in school that his parents were going out for their anniversary. So when Billy suggested that we visit Charlie instead, I pretended to be surprised and agreed, hopefully not too enthusiastically. Somehow, I felt that Billy wasn't fooled.

So on Thursday night after dinner, I went down the Clearwater's to borrow their black Ford and drove back to our house to pick up Billy. The weather had gotten worse since that sunshine-filled Saturday. A torrential downpour pummeled the car as we drove through the reservation. As we pulled up to Charlie's little gray house, a silver Volvo C30 was pulling out of the Swan driveway.

The car was awesome – it clearly had had a ton of work done, but nothing stock – I was impressed and slightly jealous. I would never get my hands on something that nice. But who in Forks could possibly own a car like that? As the car pulled towards us, I strained to see the driver more clearly through the downpour.

It was a guy around my age that I had never seen before. He had reddish-brown hair and incredibly pale – almost waxy- skin. My heart sank. The skin was a dead giveaway. It had to be a Cullen. And Embry was right, he was gorgeous.

Damnit. So I was right. That's why she asked me about the legends on Sunday. It was to find out more about the Cullens – or rather, about _a_ Cullen in particular. And there was no way I could compete with a guy who looked like that and drove a car like that.

That was when I noticed my dad's reaction. Billy had flinched at the sight of the driver and was now staring at him with a look that I had never seen on his face before, a mix of barely controlled anger and disgust. I looked back quickly to see the driver staring back at him equally angry..

Well I guess I had my answer there. It had to be one of the Cullen boys. They were the only people that ever elicited a reaction like that from Billy. Which of course, I still didn't fully understand and Billy would dismiss if I ever brought it up. The driver took his eyes off Billy to glance at me before peeling off, his tires squealing in protest.

I looked at Billy and his face was unreadable. Praying that he would behave himself and not embarrass me, I pulled into the driveway and saw Bella standing on the porch. She must have just gotten out of his car. Her backpack was slung casually over a shoulder and her jacket was entirely soaked from the short dash through the rain.

"Hey Bella"

"Jacob?" she asked, squinting through the rain at us. Just then, Charlie's cruiser came around the corner and pulled into the driveway next to us. I waited until he parked before I climbed out.

Keep it light, I reminded myself. Acting like a jealous oaf won't get you anywhere. With a grin, I waved to Bella before heading to grab Billy's wheelchair from the bed of the truck.

Charlie jumped out of the cruiser. "Billy! Jacob! Good to see you both" he called, his enthusiasm undisguised. "I'm going to pretend I didn't see you behind the wheel, Jake."

"We get permits early on the rez," I winked as I helped Billy into the chair.

"Sure you do." Charlie laughed as he patted my back and took over pushing Billy towards the house. I smiled at Bella, who had unlocked the door and was motioning to me. I didn't waste any time following her in.

Behind me, Charlie said, "This is a surprise."

"It's been too long," Billy answered. "I hope it's not a bad time." He looked up at Bella with a strange expression as he rolled by her.

"No, it's great. I hope you can stay for the game," Charlie responded with a wide smile.

I grinned. "I think that's the plan — our TV broke last week."

Billy made a face at me. "And, of course, Jacob was anxious to see Bella again."

I felt my face turn beet red. I could not believe he had just said that. The old man was losing it. I tried hard to stop the blush as I looked anywhere but at Bella.

"Are you hungry?" she asked quickly, as she moved towards the kitchen.

Grateful to her for changing the subject, I responded, "Naw, we ate just before we came."

"How about you, Charlie?"

"Sure," he called out. I watched as he helped Billy into the front room where they began discussing the specs of the new flat screen. Seizing the opportunity, I followed Bella into the kitchen.

She was slicing up stuff for sandwiches when I came into the kitchen. Standing there awkwardly, unsure of what to say, I finally gave up and started with the generic, "So, how are things?"

"Pretty good," she responded with a smile. "How about you? Did you finish your car?"

Surprised that she had remembered, I smiled warmly. But then I frowned remembering how far away I was to actually finishing the car.

"No, I still need parts. We borrowed that one." I motioned to the truck sitting out in her driveway.

"Sorry. I haven't seen any… what was it you were looking for?"

"Master cylinder," I smiled at her, ridiculously pleased that she had listened to what I said.

Then suddenly something occurred to me, "Is something wrong with the truck?"

"No."

"Oh. I just wondered because you weren't driving it."

"I got a ride with a friend," she responded hesitantly as she began grilling the sandwiches.

"Nice ride." It really was a nice car. Sensing that she wouldn't volunteer info about the Cullen guy unless I asked point black, I continued, "I didn't recognize the driver, though. I thought I knew most of the kids around here."

She nodded, still not looking at me as she concentrated intently on flipping the sandwiches on the griddle.

"My dad seemed to know him from somewhere," I pressed on. It was stupid, I was pretty sure it was him but I just wanted to hear her say it.

"Jacob, could you hand me some plates? They're in the cupboard over the sink," she asked suddenly.

"Sure," I reached over to grab the plates. They were white with little blue flowers on them. They were so absurdly Bella-ish that I forgot my train of thought for a moment.

Running out of ways to be subtle, I finally asked her point blank. "So who was it?"

She signed as she responded, "Edward Cullen."

I laughed before I could help myself. She looked exactly the way she did as a child when Sue caught her taking cookies out of the cookie jar before dinner. She looked at me quickly and I stopped laughing. That probably wasn't an appropriate response.

"Guess that explains it, then," I said. "I wondered why my dad was acting so strange."

"That's right." She said innocently. "He doesn't like the Cullens."

"Superstitious old man," I muttered hoping to lighten the situation. I didn't want her to actually think there was anything to what I had told her. The last thing I needed was for her to mention it to someone, especially, one of the Cullens, and have them suing us for libel or something.

"You don't think he'd say anything to Charlie, will he?" she asked me urgently in a soft voice.

She looked me in the eye for the first time since I came into the kitchen. I could see concern bordering on panic in her eyes. That's when I realized that she was really into this guy. I could see the flush of excitement that lingered in her face and eyes. Excitement that had nothing to do with my presence and everything to do with who were talking about.

That's when I knew that I had never really been in competition. I should have known. How could I ever have matched up against the guy that I saw out there? He was every bit as extraordinary as I was ordinary. I was surprised by how painful the rejection was, even though I had known that it would be coming all evening. It was like a swift jab to the gut, leaving me breathless, aching, and empty.

Trying not to let my disappointment show, I kept my voice steady, "I doubt it. I think Charlie chewed him out pretty good the last time he said something. They haven't seen each in other in a while - tonight is sort of a reunion, I think. I don't think he'd bring it up again."

"Oh," she sighed, unable to hide the relief in her voice and on her face.

I looked away struggling to process the million and one thoughts that were racing through my head. She smiled at me, apologetically, as she picked up the plates and walked back to the front room where Billy and Charlie had turned on the game.

I stayed in the bright yellow kitchen for a moment to gather my thoughts. So Bella was definitely into the Cullen kid. But it's not the end of the world, I reminded myself. People go through crushes all the time. Especially in high school. It's not as if she was going to be with him for eternity or something. Get a grip, Jake. Just go out there, and just be her friend.

While our dads chattered away about the match, we chatted lightly about school, movies, TV, but I could tell that she was distracted. When the game ended, I couldn't decide if I was relieved or frustrated. I got up to help Billy maneuver around the furniture in the living room. He and Charlie were still engrossed in a heated debate over the baseball results, but Bella followed us to the door like a proper hostess.

"Are you and your friends coming back to the beach soon?" I asked, unable to stop myself, as I pushed Billy over the threshold.

"I'm not sure," she hesitated.

I knew that she wouldn't come back. I could see it clearly in her eyes, even though she was trying to be polite. Of course she wouldn't have time now that she had a boyfriend.

Charlie and I lifted Billy down the front steps and helped him into the black truck. I folded the wheelchair and stuck it in the trunk before hopping into the front seat.

"That was fun, Charlie," Billy said with a smile and a wave.

"Come up for the next game," Charlie encouraged patting him on the arm through the window of the passenger seat.

"Sure, sure," Billy responded with a smile. "We'll be here. Have a good night." Then he looked back towards the house at Bella and his tone changed, "You take care, Bella."

I gritted my teeth as I pulled into reverse and backed out of the driveway more quickly than I had intended. What was his deal? First he has to humiliate me by telling her that I'm crushing on her and now he has to go freak her out with this "you're in trouble" vibe. Was he trying to completely ruin my chances with her? I should have told him that he needn't bother since I didn't have a chance with her to begin with. But I didn't say anything and we sat in a heavy silence as I drove us home through the pouring rain.


	7. Awkward

**  
Chapter 7: Awkward**

I knew Charlie was coming over to fish with Billy and Harry on Saturday, so I stayed away all day not wanting to run into him. I didn't want to be reminded about what happened. And I felt stupid too. I had no right to be this bummed out. It was just a stupid crush, why was I making this into something more than that? And yet, I felt in my gut that this was something more than just a crush. Not that I would have told anyone about that.

As I headed home for dinner, I saw Harry's truck still parked in our driveway. The door was wide open and agitated voices floated out into the evening air.

"You agree, though, that we have to say something to him, right?" Billy demanded urgently.

"Yes, absolutely. But how? You know Charlie has a hard head when it comes to this." Harry's voice was uncharacteristically low and worried.

"I just don't understand. Why are they socializing in Forks? Old Quil said that they usually keep to themselves," Billy asked.

"Who knows, maybe things have changed. Just go talk to him."

I heard Harry get up from the chair and walk towards the door. Not wanting to be caught eaves-dropping, I backed up hastily but ended up tripping over the ramp and falling down hard against the porch railing. Harry and Billy were both at the doorway when I got up. I smiled apologetically as Harry patted my shoulder on his way to his truck. Billy watched me carefully as I went into the kitchen to pour myself something to drink.

"Jake. I need you to drive me to Charlie's tomorrow," Billy said gently but firmly.

"I know, I heard you guys when I came back," I responded equally gently but firmly. "But I don't understand what you're planning to warn him about."

Billy gave me a long level look. And suddenly, I knew what they were talking about it. I had suspected it based on the weird vibes he was giving off to Bella on Thursday, but I had dismissed it as my own overreaction.

"This is about the Cullens, right?" I asked angrily. I hadn't realized how pissed I was until I said it. I tried to calm down a little as I continued, "This is why you acted so weirdly to Bella on Thursday, right?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," Billy said with a stern voice. "And I do not like your tone, young man."

I forced myself to clamp down on my anger. I knew it wouldn't get me anywhere. Billy was very big about controlling your temper, which of course, was one of the things that I totally sucked at.

"You know what I'm talking about. You gave her all those weird looks that night," I pressed on. "It had to do with that Cullen kid, didn't it?"

Billy replied calmly, "You know what our legends say about them. And since she doesn't seem to understand the full extent of the danger, Harry and I feel that we need to warn Charlie about this."

"But they're legends, folklore, mythology – whatever you want to call them!" My voice escalated as the frustration from the past few days found an outlet. "They aren't true! I don't understand why you treat them as if they were!"

This wasn't the first time we had had this argument. I felt like I was talking to a wall that talked back, for all the progress I had made about this stupid tribal prejudice.

"How do you know they aren't true?" he asked.

"Vampires? Werewolves? Are you kidding me?" I ground out scathingly. "They're just stories! I swear, you're going to start telling me that the tooth fairy exists next!"

"You still haven't answered my question. I agree that it may seem hard to believe, but you don't have any proof that the stories aren't real," Billy observed calmly.

"I can't have this conversation with you. It's ridiculous. I just don't get it. Don't you see how this makes you a hypocrite, dad? You tell me how important it is to be fair and open-minded, and yet you go around spreading all of this crap about people you barely know! Don't you realize that it makes us look bad? Like a bunch of lowlife jealous stupid superstitious natives?!"

I pounded the table in frustration. This whole thing had never made any sense. It was entirely out of character for my dad to behave like this and I couldn't understand for the life of me what was driving it.

"I know you don't understand it. But you will one day," Billy replied gently. "One day, you will know far more than you would ever want to know."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" I demanded angrily. What kind of a response was that?

"It means that we're not talking about this anymore. I know you're frustrated about the … uh …the Bella situation … so you can't talk rationally about this right now," Billy acknowledged.

I rolled my eyes. I couldn't believe that he was lecturing me about talking rationally. He was the one who was about to warn his best friend about the existence of vampires in Forks!

"Look, she won't be there tomorrow," Billy continued, "Charlie said that she's going to be out all day, probably with the Cullen kid. You won't have to see her. Just drive me there in the afternoon, I'll talk to Charlie and we'll leave."

I glared at him. I couldn't believe I was going to do this.

"Please, Jake. It's important to me."

*********

It was drizzling as we pulled up to Charlie's house the next day. The driveway was empty – no cruiser or orange truck. Clearly, no one was home and I sighed with relief.

"We'll wait until he gets back," Billy said.

I looked at him in disbelief. I still couldn't believe that he was serious about this. I parked and slouched down in the seat.

"I think we should wait on the porch. It'll be nice to get some fresh air."

I glared at him again. It was drizzling outside and the weather was damp and ridiculously unpleasant. But if that was what he wanted, I wasn't going to fight it. I just wanted this to be over. I helped him out of the truck and situated us on the front porch to wait. We heard the truck coming before it pulled up, the familiar rumbling of the engine as it pulled up the street.

Damnit. I thought he said that Bella wouldn't be here. I glanced at Billy quickly, but he seemed as surprised as I was. Even though I knew that she would be unhappy to see us, I couldn't help but turn my head in anticipation of her arrival. But as the truck pulled around the corner, I saw her immediately in the passenger seat of the car. Which of course, could only mean one thing.

I stared down immediately, completely horrified. It was bad enough that we were here. But for her to show up. And with him? What must he think of us? Or me? The lovesick puppy with an unrequited crush on his girlfriend? Great. As if I didn't feel stupid enough about the whole thing.

I looked up just in time to see the Cullen guy kiss her. And it hurt. It really hurt. Even though I had known that he was her boyfriend, seeing proof of it in person was more depressing that I had expected. And I wasn't the only one rattled by it. Billy clutched the armrests of his chair, not letting out his breath until Bella hopped out of the truck and made a dash through the rain towards us.

"Hey, Billy. Hi, Jacob," Bella greeted us cheerfully, though I could detect the forced cheerfulness in her tone. "Charlie's gone for the day — I hope you haven't been waiting long."

She was dressed up, wearing a skirt and a blue shirt that clung to her delicate curves in all the right ways. The color of the shirt also warmed her pale skin and she looked happy, deliriously happy. I felt a stab of jealousy mixed with a weird sense of contentment at seeing her so happy. I just wished that I could be the one to put that smile on her face.

"Not long," Billy said in a subdued tone. "I just wanted to bring this up." He indicated the sack of Harry's fish fry that had served as the excuse for our visit.

"Thanks," she said, clearly confused. "Why don't you come in for a minute and dry off?"

She unlocked the door quickly and waved us in ahead of her as she held open the door.

"Here, let me take that," she offered as she took the package and neatly shut the door behind us. I could still see the Cullen kid waiting in the truck outside.

"You'll want to put it in the fridge," Billy noted as he handed over the package. "It's some of Harry Clearwater's homemade fish fry — Charlie's favorite. The fridge keeps it drier."

"Thanks," she replied enthusiastically. "I was running out of new ways to fix fish, and he's bound to bring home more tonight."

"Fishing again?" Billy asked with a subtle gleam in his eye. "Down at the usual spot? Maybe I'll run by and see him."

"No," she said quickly, her face turning pink. "He was headed someplace new… but I have no idea where."

It was completely obvious that she was lying. Clearly she and I were cut from the same cloth when it came to our inability to tell lies. Billy looked at her thoughtfully for a moment before he replied.

"Jake, why don't you go get that new picture of Rebecca out of the car? I'll leave that for Charlie, too."

"Where is it?" I asked. I could barely look at her or at him. I didn't know what to think. On one hand, I wanted to be around to do damage control in case Billy started in on her, but on the other hand, I just didn't want to have anything to do with the whole situation.

"I think I saw it in the trunk," Billy said. "You may have to dig for it."

I figured that distancing myself was the better of the two evils, so I went outside to "look" for the photo. I knew as well as Billy did that the photo from Rebecca was sitting on our kitchen table, but I had to play along. I was surprised to see the truck still sitting out in the driveway, but it was empty now. Come to think of it, I hadn't heard a car pull up to the driveway in the last few minutes, so how on earth did the Cullen kid get home? Did he walk? I had heard they lived far from town so that didn't seem possible.

I climbed back into the car to avoid the rain as I waited out whatever awkward conversation was going on inside the house. I closed my eyes as I deeply wished that I could be anywhere but here. Five minutes passed and I figured that I couldn't stretch it out any longer, so I trudged back through the mud to the house. I opened the door loudly, wanting to announce my arrival in case they were still talking about anything that I didn't want to be a part of.

"There's no picture anywhere in that car," I complained loudly.

"Hmm," Billy grunted as he spun his chair around to face me. "I guess I left it at home."

I caught his eye and he knew that I wasn't fooled, but I rolled my eyes for Bella's sake. "Great."

"Well, Bella, tell Charlie that we stopped by," Billy said.

"I will," Bella responded softly but resolutely.

I was surprised. I had expected Billy to wait it out until Charlie arrived. "Are we leaving already?"

"Charlie's gonna be out late," Billy explained as he rolled himself past me.

"Oh." Damnit. I was hoping that this would be resolved today. That Billy would tell Charlie and Charlie could laugh him off and then I wouldn't have to deal with any of this humiliation anymore.

"Well, I guess I'll see you later, then, Bella."

"Sure," she said with a warm smile. Damnit. That smile of hers still did stupid things to me even though I knew I shouldn't let it.

"Take care," Billy said as I helped him out the door. She waved to us as we made our way to the truck, but she shut the door before we even got in. Clearly, Billy had said something to upset her. I rolled my eyes, trying not to get too pissed off.

I was suddenly grateful for the existence of the treaty, which meant that Billy couldn't actually tell her the crazy stories. Of course, I had already told her all of them, but I didn't want her to know that my father actually believed them. I didn't even want to know that my father actually believed them. And so for the second time that week, we sat in dead silence as I drove us home through the pouring rain.


	8. Accident

**Chapter 8: Accident**

I was totally bummed out. I couldn't explain why this bothered me as much as it did. Maybe it was because she was the first girl that I had clicked with. I was so quiet at school the next day that Quil and Embry hounded me until I reluctantly told them the whole story. They were both sympathetic in their own way. Embry kept telling me that there were more fish in the sea, while Quil actively tried to point out the specific fish that he thought would suit me.

"How about Helen?" Quil asked as he turned to give her a completely non-subtle once-over. "She's been checking you out forever. She would totally date you."

I rolled my eyes, but I couldn't help taking a peek. Helen was quite pretty, but then I remembered the extremely awkward conversations that we in History last week. I couldn't imagine having to spend a whole evening talking to her - the awkward pauses, her prattling on about things I wasn't interested in – it just sounded like torture. It wasn't like with Bella ... I cut off that thought midstream.

"Okay, fine, fine. I agree, she's kinda blah," Quil acknowledged as he swiveled around in his seat to better scope out the cafeteria. "How about that girl in math who is always asking to borrow your notes? What's her name? She's hot!"

"Leslie," Embry offered helpfully. He turned to me and said seriously, "She's definitely into you. I mean, I've seen your notes and they suck. I wouldn't have asked for them twice."

"Does she look like my type?" I responded, jerking my head at Leslie who was painting her fingernails a silvery pink while gossiping with her friends at the lunch table. I was not into high-maintenance.

"No offense, dude, but your type is kinda boring," Quil shrugged. "I really don't know what you see in Bella. I mean, I guess she's pretty in that girl-next-door kind of way, but you can't tell me that Leslie isn't way hotter."

I sighed. There were things that Quil would never understand.

"Okay, I get it. What about Kim? She might be boring enough for you," Quil suggested.

"Please. She's been in love with Jared since 1st grade. I don't think she even knows any other guys exist," Embry reminded him.

"Well it's not like Jared knows she exists," Quil interjected. "And he could do so much better."

"Thanks," I replied sarcastically as I pulled out my math binder. I figured that doing anything else was better than having to listen to any more of this.

"No offense, man, but the guy is cut! And he didn't used to be. I should ask him about his workout routine ..."

I tuned out as Quil started to give us the latest scoop on his own workout regimen - which was far as I could tell - had made zero difference. But I wasn't going to tell him that.

When I got home from school on Monday, Charlie's police cruiser was sitting in our driveway. Panicked that something might have happened to Billy, I burst into the living room to find Charlie -asleep on our couch. Based on the empty bottles of beer lying around, he was probably half-drunk as well.

"Bella left last night," Billy said softly. "She returned to Phoenix."

"What?" I breathed in sharply. "That doesn't make any sense … "

"She said that she hated Forks and didn't want to put down any more roots here," Charlie interrupted as he opened his eyes. His voice was rough with emotion and exhaustion. "She said that she didn't want to make the same stupid mistake as Renee had and end up trapped in this stupid boring town."

"But … but..." I sputtered. That didn't sound like Bella at all. I may not have known her that well, but I knew that Bella would never intentionally hurt anyone. Especially not someone she loved. And she loved Charlie. Something else had to be wrong. This was completely out of character.

I opened my mouth to protest but Billy shook his head. I took another look at Charlie who was staring off into space as he fiddled with the beer caps sprinkled across the table. I nodded as I put my stuff down and quietly left for the garage.

I couldn't believe that she had left. That she had been that unhappy here. I had seen no signs of it at all. At the beach, she had seemed thrilled and excited. And this past week, I flashed back to the memories of her excited, flushed, happy face from hanging out with the Cullen kid. It didn't make sense.

I worried suddenly that Charlie didn't know the whole story. Maybe there was something else going on that was forcing Bella to run away. Maybe the Cullen guy did something to her. I couldn't stop thinking about it over the next few days, replaying all of my interactions with her to try to glean some understanding about her decision to leave. But nothing made sense.

On Thursday night, as I sat in my room slogging through homework, I heard Billy answering a frantic call from Charlie.

"Calm down, calm down. I can't understand you … What? …. Is she okay? What happened?"

I tore out of my room. Billy was hunched over the kitchen table; his book had slipped to the floor. His face was contorted in panic and his left hand was gripping the table hard. I felt my stomach drop. I was right. There was something fishy about this whole disappearance.

"What happened," I demanded frantically, but Billy waved his hand at me to keep quiet.

"Okay … okay … Who found her? … WHAT?" Billy was almost shouting now, "But why were they there? … Uh huh … Uh huh …Charlie, you've got to go down and see her … No, I know that Renee is there but you need to be there … You know what I'm talking about! … You have to trust me on this…. Okay, fine! We won't talk about this now…. I'm just glad she's okay! Call me if there's any news."

Billy slammed the phone down in frustration. It looked as if his left hand was gripping the table so hard that his fingers would leave an indentation in the wood.

"What happened?" I demanded again.

"Bella had an accident in Phoenix. She fell through a window and down a flight of stairs," he said wearily. "She's okay, but she's in the hospital with a broken leg and some severe bruises and cuts."

"How on earth did that happen?" I mean, Bella was clumsy, but I didn't know if she was _that_ clumsy.

"She said it was an accident," he said, but I could tell that he didn't believe it. "She was going to visit the Cullens when she tripped."

"The Cullens?" I was surprised, "What were they doing in Phoenix?"

"According to Charlie, the boy was there to beg Bella to reconsider moving and his father accompanied him," Billy explained. He look away suddenly, his eyes hard and calculating.

My mouth was open in surprise. I didn't quite know what to make of that. "Well if Charlie wants to go down and see her, but doesn't want to fly, maybe we can go with him this weekend. I can share the driving so it won't be too bad."

Billy's head snapped up. "No, no! I forbid you to visit her."

"What do you mean you_ forbid_ me to visit her?!!" I stared at him in shock. My dad had never spoken to me like this. I couldn't believe how worked up he was about this. And he wasn't even worked up in the right way. He didn't even seem concerned about the fact that Bella got hurt. All he cared about were the damn Cullens. "What is wrong with you?"

"Nothing, just go to your room Jake. I need to talk to the elders." Billy grabbed the phone and pushed away from me.

"Are you kidding me? What does this have to do with them?" I asked angrily, following him into the living room.

"Just go, Jake." Billy roared as he motioned for me to leave the room.

I stumbled back into my room and slammed the door in anger. The old man was losing it. There was no other explanation. He had officially lost all his marbles. He had always been superstitious, but this whole Cullen thing was getting out of hand. He was getting ridiculously paranoid about them. I half considered googling Dementia or Alzheimer's, but the thought was too depressing.

I could hear him through the wall on the phone with someone, so I tried to listen through the door but all I could hear were nonsensical snippets around treaties and wars and other crazy stuff. I could tell that the other person was telling him to calm down though and I was relieved to hear that it was working. At least someone was talking some sense into him. But I was surprised when I heard him say "Sam". He was talking to Sam Uley? I had assumed he would be talking to Old Quil or Harry. What the hell was going on? I decided that I couldn't take it anymore, so I stormed out of the house to go into the garage.

Things were still weird the next day. I could tell Billy was still edgy, waiting for Charlie to call with more news. But when he did call that night, the news was good. Bella had woken up and was recovering nicely. And the news got progressively better each day, but Billy didn't seem relieved at all.

I was too pissed to say anything, so I ignored him mostly - spending most of my time in the garage and avoiding him. He knew I was pissed, but he didn't call me out on it. Which just surprised me even more. I kept waiting for him to lecture me about my behavior and yet he never did.

Bella came back to Forks shortly afterwards to finish out her recovery. Apparently, the whole running away had been a big misunderstanding and she was back to stay. Or at least that was what I interpreted from Billy's mumbled version of what Charlie told him. And she was back together with Cullen. Which also explained, why Billy as so unhappy with her decision.

And I was equally unhappy with the whole situation because Billy wouldn't let me go visit her - not even to give her a stupid get well card or flowers. I couldn't believe how unreasonable he was, but he insisted that it wasn't safe for me to go. I was pissed, but I couldn't do anything about it. I was still nowhere close to being done with the Rabbit and none of Billy's friends would lend me a car. I was too angry to ask him how Bella was doing, so I got most of my updates from Seth via Harry. So I was surprised, a few weeks later, when Billy called me into the kitchen.

"I have a favor to ask of you," he said gravely as he motioned to the chair.

I saw down slowly, my eyes wary as I nodded.

"I want you to go to see Bella," he said.

'What?!" I almost jumped out of the chair. "But I've been wanting to go see her for ages and you're the one who wouldn't let me!"

"I know," he replied. "But I've changed my mind. I want you to go to talk to her."

"Is she okay? Did something happen?" I asked quickly, wondering what could have possibly brought about this turn of events.

"No no, she's okay. There's nothing wrong," he replied quickly. "I just want you to ... talk to her... for me"

I suddenly got it. I stared at him, having a hard time believing that he was doing this. "You want me to talk to her. For you." I sighed. "And what exactly is it that you want me to say?"

Billy looked at me calmly. "I want you to deliver a message to her from me. To ask her to stay away from the Cullen boy."

I'd like to say that I took it calmly, but I totally freaked out. "Aw, Dad! Come on. Not this again! You know, I can't do this, right? I mean, this is ridiculous!"

I got up to leave, but Billy grabbed my arm and held me in place.

"It's important Jacob. It's _really_ important."

This was freaking unbelievable. "Dad, I can't do this. You know I can't do this. She's going to think I'm a freak. Telling her to break up with her boyfriend? Come on!"

"You can tell her it's a message from me. That you're just the messenger," he pressed on.

"Aw, come on. Like that's going to make it better. I can't do this, really. Please, I'll drive you so you can talk to Charlie yourself. Just don't make me do this."

"Charlie doesn't understand. And my conscience won't rest unless I've done my best to protect her."

"Protect her from what, dad? Are we seriously talking about vampires here? You realize that we live in the 21st century, right? You can't walk around talking about vampires without people wanting to shut you up in a rubber-room, you know?"

"Look, I know you think I'm crazy. And that you think I've lost it. But you don't doubt that I care about you, right?"

I nodded my head curtly.

"And that I care about Charlie, right?" He paused as he waited for me to nod. "And by extension, I care about Bella. I just don't want her to get her hurt."

I sighed. I couldn't believe I was actually listening to this.

"I'll pay you ten bucks to go," he said.

"Not worth it," I dismissed it immediately.

"Twenty."

I raised an eyebrow at him. Wow, he really was desperate. "Look, dad. I'm sorry. I just can't. I would feel too stupid. And really, there's no point, because she wouldn't listen to me anyways. Please don't ask me to do this."

"If you cared about her, Jake. If you _really_ cared, you would do what I'm asking of you."

"What is that supposed to me," I demanded angrily. "You can't keep staying stuff like that? 'One day you'll know,' my face contorted as I tried to mimic his voice. "How am I supposed to respond to any of this?"

"It'll all become clear one day. It really will," he said sadly.

"You're doing it again," I muttered.

"Please Jacob. Help your old man out here. Her prom is this weekend and ..."

"Wait, what?! You want me to crash her prom to tell her?! No way! Uh uh ... this is so not happening ..." I pulled away from him again to try to skirt around the table and escape through the front door.

"You can't go to the house. Charlie won't approve of what you're saying and I don't want to get him involved. I need you to talk to her somewhere where he won't hear you."

"Okay, you've definitely lost it. I am not crashing her prom like some loser guy to tell her to break up with her boyfriend. I mean, I don't even have words to describe how pathetic that would make me look. I'm sorry. You'll just have to ask someone else," I insisted as I opened the door to leave.

"I'll get you the master cylinder for the Rabbit."

I paused on the threshold. Damnit. He had found the Achilles heel in my armor. I desperately needed that cylinder. My progress on the Rabbit had been completely stalled because I couldn't get my hands on one yet. A master cylinder cost almost $300 bucks. Which was $300 more than I had.

Seeing me hesitate, he went for the jugular. "And I'll talk to Quil Sr. about ordering some other parts for the car. I'll pre-pay for them now so you can start working on the car and then you can pay me back from your summer job."

Damnit. He was really serious about this. I was torn. I desperately wanted to see Bella. To make sure she was okay. And on top of that, I desperately wanted to finish the car. Having a car meant freedom on the rez. It would actually allow me to do things, hang out with my friends, and go to Forks whenever I wanted to.

But on the other hand, what he was asking me to do was just ridiculous. I cringed as I thought of how ridiculous and stupid I would look. I knew she had a boyfriend, but I wanted her to at least think of me as a friend. Not some pathetic loser who couldn't take a hint.

"Think about it. You can let me know," Billy said softly as he returned to his book.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath as I walked out the door.


	9. Messenger

**Chapter 9: Messenger**

"He wants you to do what?" Quil exploded. "No way, man. Not happening. She's gonna think that you're a pathetic loser. Which you are, but you don't want her to know that!"

"Very helpful," I responded sarcastically. We were sitting in my garage pretending to do homework. I had filled them in on Billy's request, but was now regretting it. What I wanted, was help justifying my decision to go, not a reminder of why I was an idiot for even considering it.

"You have to admit, Jake, this would not be one of your finer moments," Embry said as he passed me a warm soda.

"Yeah, I know. But maybe it won't be so bad? I mean, I can tell her explicitly that Billy bribed me to come and that I'm delivering a message and that it has nothing to do with me. That's not so bad, right?" I asked hopefully.

"Right, let me see. Hi Bella. You look nice. My dad paid me to come tell you to break up with your boyfriend," Quil mocked. "Right, that's going to make you sound cool. Just tell him, no!"

"But the master cylinder! And the car parts! It would take me a year to save enough money for all of this stuff." I protested.

Quil rolled his eyes. But then again, Quil would probably be given a car on his 16th birthday so he didn't really understand my predicament. "I'm not saying that wheels aren't important. They are. But if you want to have any chance with her, you can't do this."

"I don't think I had much of a chance to begin with," I muttered.

"True. It's not like she's going to dump Cullen for you, right?" Quil acknowledged seriously.

Embry punched him for me. "Hey! What! I'm not saying that she shouldn't since Jake is obviously the better man. But Cullen's gorgeous," he winced as he said it, "and he's got nice wheels. Most girls don't see past that."

"Making me feel better here, Quil" I mumbled. But I knew he was right.

"Well, as long as we agree that you have no shot with Bella, then maybe it's not such a bad idea," Embry mused.

"What are you talking about?"

"Well … getting the car done is a big deal. It'll help you out with other girls around here."

"I like the way he's thinking. So call it quits on the whole Bella obsession - it was getting old anyway - get the car done and score with some other chicks! Listen to the man here!" Quil cackled as he gave Embry a hi-five.

I sighed. It was easier to play along and pretend that was what I was thinking, as opposed to admit what I was truly thinking. It was stupid. And I never would admit this to them in a thousand years, because I didn't want to hear Quil's thoughts on it. But part of the reason I wanted to go was because I wanted to see her. I just wanted to make sure she as okay. To see if she was happy. The past few weeks - from the running away to the dreadful accident - had just seemed too unlike Bella. She didn't do stuff like that and I felt this stupid compulsion to check-in on her. To make sure that things were okay.

I put on a collared shirt and tie from Billy's closet. I figured I'd try to at least clean-up so I wouldn't look so out of place at the prom. I borrowed Harry's Ford and drove out to Forks High School. I almost chickened out when I recognized some of Bella's friends in the limo in front of me. God, this was going to be embarrassing. I pulled into the parking lot and sat there for a few minutes, working up the courage to go in there. The Rabbit. That's right. Just think about the Rabbit.

I walked through the gym door, pretending as if I belonged. Fake it til you make it or whatever it was that they said you should do. And really, I looked pretty much like any of the other guys in the room. Some had tuxes on and some just had on suits, but all of them looked as damn uncomfortable as I did.

The gym looked like it came straight out of some Prom night horror movie, with pastel balloon arches and crepe ribbons festooned all over the place. If the goal was to hide the shabbiness of the gym, the plan failed miserably. The garish decorations just managed to date the whole building even more.

I scanned the crowd, looking for Bella. I figured she shouldn't be too hard to spot given that she had a giant cast on her leg, according to Charlie. I recognized some of the girls from the beach - the tall thin girl with glasses was dancing with an overly energetic guy, while the peppy brown-haired girl was wearing a skin-tight pink gown and looked like a cat who had caught the cream, as she danced with Mike. I guess she got him. I smiled, remember how hard she had been trying that day at the beach. Apparently, persistence does pay off.

And then I saw her. Bella was wearing a blue dress. It was rapidly becoming my favorite color, because it brought out the richness of her hair and the delicate blush in her cheeks. I gulped as I felt my entire face grow warm. She was gorgeous. And she looked ridiculously happy dancing with him. It hurt. It hurt a lot. She was clearly head over heels in love with this guy. And I felt that strange tug of war within me. The burn of jealousy warring with the contentment that came from knowing that she was happy.

Cullen turned suddenly to look at me, even though I was still only at the door, much too far away for him to have heard me walk in. His eyes narrowed and his face was angry. I felt my face flush as I remembered why I was here. Right, this was going to be awkward. I knew that. But I could do this. Just ask her to dance so that I get a few minutes to pass on the message and then I'm done.

I watched as he glared at me, seemingly reading my thoughts. I wondered suddenly if he would cause a scene and pick a fight with me. Not that I was afraid. Not that I could blame him. With all the crap that the Quileutes had said about him and his family. I couldn't blame him for being a little ticked off at us. In fact, I would have tried to apologize for it, if I could figure out how to do it without feeling like an idiot. I struck that thought from my head. I had a difficult enough conversation ahead of me, I didn't need to add another one to my plate.

Bella looked around in confusion at Cullen's expression. She stretched on her tippy toes, peering through the crowds, until she saw me.

I could read the shock of recognition on her face, and then her forehead furrowed. I held my hands up in surrender as I walked up to them, hoping to diffuse the situation and set the right tone.

"Behave!" I heard her hiss as I approached. I watched him visibly relax, his face wiped smooth of all the emotion I had seen just then.

His reply to her was scathing. "He wants to chat with you."

I flushed as I heard him. I began to second-guess my decision. It wasn't too late for me to back out. I could just say hi, make up some excuse for crashing, and then head out. Tell Billy he could find someone else to do his dirty work. As I reached them, Bella turned to me with a warm smile and I was momentarily dazzled again.

"Hey, Bella, I was hoping you would be here." I said softly returning her smile.

"Hi, Jacob," she smiled back warmly, as if I wasn't butting in at prom with her boyfriend. "What's up?"

"Can I cut in?" I asked tentatively, catching Cullen's eye for the first time. I was surprised to realize that I was as tall as he was. He was no longer glaring at me, his face composed, his expression blank. I tried to convey my apologies in my eyes, but he didn't seem to read it. His only answer was to set Bella down and take a step back. Well that was better than him punching me I guess.

I almost wrinkled my nose as I caught a strange sickly sweet smell coming off of him. With that much money, why the hell was he wearing such nasty smelling cologne? It was strange, but the smell seemed to permeate through my whole body, causing my skin to tingle with a strange burning sensation.

"Thanks," I said amiably. What was he so worried about anyways? It's not like I was going to steal his girlfriend or anything. Not that I wouldn't want to, but it was clear she wouldn't be up for it.

I put my hands around her waist and we started to sway awkwardly to the music. Her cast made it impossible for her to dance and putting her onto my feet - like he had been doing earlier - might be pushing my luck too much. Plus, I was feely gangly and uncoordinated suddenly.

She smiled warmly again as she put her hands on my shoulders. "Wow, Jake, how tall are you now?"

I grinned smugly. "Six-two."

"So, how did you end up here tonight?" she asked curiously, cutting right to the chase.

"Can you believe my dad paid me twenty bucks to come to your prom?" I joked.

"Yes, I can," she muttered. "Well, I hope you're enjoying yourself, at least. Seen anything you like?" she teased as she nodded to the line of girls sitting across the bleachers.

"Yeah," I sighed. "But she's taken." I could feel her curious gaze and I glanced into her eyes for a moment— then we both looked away, embarrassed. What the hell was I doing? This was not part of the plan that I had rehearsed in my head.

"You look really pretty, by the way," I added before I could stop myself. Hanged for a lamb as well as a sheep, I figured.

"Um, thanks," she said awkwardly with an adorable pink flush on her cheeks. "So why did Billy pay you to come here?"

I looked away, trying to figure out how to word this. Even though I had rehearsed this in my mind a million times on the way over, I was suddenly drawing a blank.

"He said it was a safe place to talk to you. I swear the old man is losing his mind," I laughed weakly.

She laughed softly with me, which I took as a good sign.

"Anyway, he said that if I told you something, he would get me that master cylinder I need," I confessed sheepishly.

"Tell me, then. I want you to get your car finished," she grinned at me.

I looked away, almost squirming with embarrassment. "Don't get mad, okay?"

"There's no way I'll be mad at you, Jacob," she reassured me. "I won't even be mad at Billy. Just say what you have to."

"Well — this is so stupid, I'm sorry, Bella — he wants you to break up with your boyfriend. He asked me to tell you 'please.'" I shrugged awkwardly as I delivered the message.

"He's still superstitious, eh?"

"Yeah. He was… kind of over the top when you got hurt down in Phoenix. He didn't believe…" I trailed off self-consciously.

Her eyes narrowed. "I fell."

"I know that," I said quickly, lowering my gaze to her cast.

"He thinks Edward had something to do with me getting hurt," she stated angrily. We had stopped moving to the music. "Look, Jacob, I know Billy probably won't believe this, but just so you know," I looked up at her sensing the urgency in her voice. "Edward really did save my life. If it weren't for Edward and his father, I'd be dead."

"I know," I insisted.

"Hey, I'm sorry you had to come do this, Jacob," she apologized. "At any rate, you get your parts, right?"

"Yeah," I muttered. I still had one more thing to say.

"There's more?" she asked in disbelief.

"Forget it," I mumbled. "I'll get a job and save the money myself."

She glared at me until I looked up. "Just spit it out, Jacob."

"It's so bad."

"I don't care. Tell me," she insisted, her hands gripping my arms tightly.

"Okay… but, geez, this sounds bad." I shook my head before continuing. "He said to tell you, no, to _warn _you, that — and this is his plural, not mine." I lifted one hand off her waist and made little quotations marks in the air. '"We'll be watching.'"

I watched her warily, but instead of being outraged or angry, she cracked up. I felt my body suddenly loosen up with relief. I should have known it would be okay. This was Bella.

"Sorry you had to do that, Jake," she snickered, her eyes glittering with laughter.

"I don't mind _that _much." I grinned at her in relief. "So, should I tell him you said to butt the hell out?" I asked hopefully.

"No," she sighed. "Tell him I said thanks. I know he means well."

That was the Bella that I knew. Looking for the good in everyone. She dropped her arms abruptly, which is how I noticed that the song ended. I hesitated, unsure of what to do next. "Do you want to dance again? Or can I help you get somewhere?"

Cullen cut in at that moment, his hand, cold and heavy on my arm. "That's all right, Jacob. I'll take it from here."

I flinched. Oh right. Her boyfriend. I was so relieved that she hadn't freaked out that I had forgotten about that.

"Hey, I didn't see you there," I muttered. "I guess I'll see you around, Bella." I stepped back and waved at her.

She smiled warmly. "Yeah, I'll see you later."

"Sorry," I said again as I turned and bolted for the door.

I couldn't get out of there fast enough. That nasty cologne that Cullen was wearing was doing odd things to my head. It made me dizzy and my skin tingled with a strange burning sensation, as if something deep inside me had been triggered by the smell. I gulped in the fresh air as I got to the door, grateful to clear my head of that strange red haze. I turned to watch them once more as they danced.

She looked so happy. Her eyes locked on him as if nothing else – no one else – existed. She didn't notice me still standing there, but I knew he did, because he glanced up quickly and shot me a hard glance. I returned his stare heavily. I wasn't doing anything wrong. I was just looking. And wishing. And hoping.

Like I had said. It was stupid to hope for something that was never going to happen. I couldn't explain it. And I knew that I was being as irrational as Billy, but I had this nagging feeling deep down inside that she was meant for me, as if this all should have turned out very differently.

As I stood there, watching her dance with the man she thought she loved, I was sure about three things. One - she was head over heels in love with him. Two - I was head over heels in love with her. And three - this was just the beginning.

* * *

_Hi guys! Never fear - this story continues on in my next installment - In the Shadow - which retells New Moon from Jake's POV. :) And don't forget to c__heck out my website - totallyteamjacob(dot)com!_

**List of my stories (link to the stories via my profile page):**

_**At First Sight:** Twilight from Jake's POV_

_**In the Shadows:** New Moon-Part 1 from Jake's POV_

_**Monster**: New Moon-Part 2 from Jake's POV_

_**At the Cliffs:** My retelling of Eclipse as Jake & Bella_


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